Another milestone.
This pandemic has been good for almost nothing, near as I can tell. When all of my scheduled street fairs & craft festivals canceled beginning in March and continuing through October, at this point … I kept going back to the shop.
Every day.
When you’re a maker … it’s what you do. So, I did.
My total inventory is now, for the first time, over 800 pieces. And, for the record, I’m not stopping. I will take a pause soon, however, as I have an event over the July 4th weekend. The only problem … is I have to leave California to do the event. California is still closed, but luckily, Prescott, AZ, is my destination. To see all the current schedule of events for Mrs M’s Handmade & Mr M’s Woodshop, click here.
But, this post is the story of this board, which was actually a special order through MrMsWoodshop.com: a Father’s Day Gift! The order was for a large cutting board, made from Black Walnut.
There is nothing like Black Walnut; I love working with it, every time. Unfortunately, though, Black Walnut can be a challenge to work, as it’s very difficult to get good Black Walnut lumber in Southern California.
I’ve found.
I actually set out to make 2 of these large Black Walnut cutting boards, which would require about 12 board feet of clean stock. Unfortunately, to get the 12 board feet of finished lumber, I went through 20 board feet of lumber. Here are the boards for the 2 cutting boards that I’ve “picked & processed”, ready for glue up:
Those are good looking boards. The problem is the waste. For a cutting board, I need clean boards, free of knots, voids, bark inclusions, shakes and cracks. Here’s what that the process waste looked like:
The very thin pieces are normal waste from the edges of the boards; they get recycled. The larger pieces with knots in the middle will get cut into smaller pieces to remove the knots and will eventually be used … after I store them long enough to gather enough small pieces that I can make something with. Unfortunately, that saving process can take years, and I end up chasing buckets of small cut offs around the shop until I’m ready to start that process.
But I digress.
This is the story of one of my favorite boards: a large, end grain Black Walnut Cutting Board. This beauty is 16-5/8″ x 21-1/4″ x 1-1/2″.
And the normal finishing touches, of course:
- Non-skid rubber feet, held on with stainless steel screws for long life
- Routed finger holds for easy pick-up
- Finish is mineral oil, with a topcoat of Mrs M’s Board Butter
More
The 700th Cutting Board (5/19/2020)
The 400th Cutting Board (1/28/19)
The 350th Cutting Board (8/16/18)
The 300th Cutting Board, 3rd Time ‘Round (4/27/18)
The 300th Cutting Board, 2nd Time ‘Round (4/4/18)
The 300th Cutting Board (2/9/18)
The 250th Cutting Board: Back In The Pig Business (10/13/17)
The 250th Cutting Board (4/8/17)
The 200th Cutting Board, 6th Time ‘Round (2/9/17)
The 200th Cutting Board, 5th Time ‘Round (11/30/16)
The 200th Cutting Board, 4th Time ‘Round (10/7/16)
The 200th Cutting Board, Third Time ‘Round (8/5/16)
The 200th Cutting Board, 8 Months Later (4/9/16)
The 200th Cutting Board (9/18/15)
WTG on your progress! The boards will be sold and you will rejoice!