Canarywood | MowryJournal.com

Hard maple boards, destined for glue up, and, eventually, a cutting board and a cheese board.

Here’s the cutting board after glue up # 1, and then slicing into 1-1/2″ strips

Glue-up # 2, where the strips are rotated into an end-grain cutting board.

# 60 Cutting Board, $60. Hard Maple, 12″ diameter.

An end grain cheese board was made from the left over hard maple.

Next cutting board was hard maple, cherry and walnut.

After the first glue up, the board is cut into 1-1/2″ strips.

You have to be very careful to number every piece and mark the orientation, or you’ll end up with a piece glued on the wrong way.

I didn’t like the design as this board was sliced … so I offset every other piece by 3/8″ to make a better pattern.

# 78 Cutting Board, $125. Hard Maple, Cherry and Black Walnut. End grain.

Next cutting board is hard maple, walnut, canarywood and cherry. Notice the asymetrical layout of the wood.

Careful numbering of each strip.

When it was cut into strips to make it an end-grain cutting board, one piece of hard maple was revealed to have spalting in the middle of the board … the little dots in the middle of the board. The grain pattern was no longer symetrical, so I moved 4 strips from one end to the other in order to center the unique grain pattern in the hard maple.

The adjusted pattern with the grain pattern centered on the board.

Glue-up in progress.

The glue needs to have sufficient “open time” so I can apply the glue to all 13 strips, and then still have time to spread the glue before placing the strips into final position.

You can never have too many clamps.

Excess glue is wiped off, and then the wet assembly sits and dries for 24 hours.

Look closely at the end strip closest to you … and you’ll see the number on the end is oriented differently than the other strips. Ooops! This strip, which was oriented the wrong way, got cut off before finishing.

All of these cutting boards are finished with mineral oil and our wood butter topcoat, which is a combination of mineral oil and locally harvested beeswax.

Next board is hard maple, walnut, cherry and canarywood.

This board stayed as a “long grain” cutting board: the grain runs the length of the board. Some prefer the checker board patterns of end grain cutting boards (which many butcher blocks have); others prefer long grain cutting boards.

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Who Doesn’t Love Cheese & Crackers?

I Had To Mention Cutting Boards

The Cutting Board

I was finishing up the 2nd round of routed bowls, and I mentioned that the process used to make the bowl blanks … building up the wood by gluing together several boards to get to the bowl dimensions … was the same as used to make cutting boards.

So, of course, I was asked to make a cutting board. And another. I ended up making 5 cutting boards and 3 cheese boards. Velda’s cutting board and cheese boards are discussed separately (link below). Here are the details on these 6x boards.

Alley and Christopher asked that their board be made in brown tones, so it is made from Walnut, Jatoba, Honey Locust, Tigerwood and Cherry. That board is 21″ long x 15-3/8″ wide x 1-1/16″ thick.

MrsMowry asked that her board be very red, so it is made from Purpleheart, Canarywood, Cherry and Hard Maple. That board is 14″ long x 12-1/4″ wide x 1-1/8″ thick.

I made two end grain cutting boards, as made famous by The Wood Whisperer. Fun project, though it’s definitely challenging to work on end grain like this. One is made from Walnut and Hard Maple; the other is Walnut and Yellowheart.

Finally, there’s a cheese board (PERFECT for the scraps that were left over!) which is 10-1/4″ long x 8-3/4″ wide and 1″ thick. The woods used are Cherry, Teak, Canarywood and Mahogany.

Selecting and arranging the boards is done with an eye towards grain, color and balance. This is also the time to inspect each board individually for any defects that might arise as the boards are planed down. Applying mineral spirits to the boards will give you a great look at the finished color of the boards.

Once the layout of the board is done, I taped the individual boards together until I was ready for the glue-up.

When you’re doing multiple projects simultaneously – the only way to be efficient! – organization is key.

The router table is the only way to get smooth & consistent handholds in place.

I did a 3/8″ roundover on each edge, as well.

After a great deal of sanding, it’s time to apply the finish.

I started with a double coat of mineral oil, and then did a topcoat of mineral oil and 25% beeswax. This topcoat will need to be re-applied regularly to keep the cutting boards water-resistant.

This is an end-grain cutting board: each board has been turned on end, so the knife will cut down on the grain, instead of across the grain. This design was made famous by The Wood Whisperer.