Honey Locust | MowryJournal.com

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.

The photo doesn’t show much difference, but the upright board is Hard Maple and Walnut. The bottom board is Yellowheart and Walnut.

This colorful board was requested by MrsMowry. Canarywood, Hard Maple, Purpleheart and Cherry.

This cheese board is Mahogany, Cherry and Walnut.

As requested by Alley. Tigerwood, Walnut, Jatoba, Cherry and Honey Locust.

More

The Cutting Board

For Christmas, I made Velda a large, long grain cutting board made of both domestic and exotic hardwoods. Here’s what I used:

Honey Locust – because as nice as she is … she definitely has thorns

Cherry – because she can be sweet

Jatoba – because sometimes I have no idea what she means

Walnut – because she’s definitely nutty

Tigerwood – because I’ve seen her angry

The cutting board measures 1′-9″ long x 1′-3-7/8″ wide x 1-1/4″ thick. That’s a very large cutting board … but that’s what she wanted. To finish, I gave it an initial coat of mineral oil, wiped it off when it was dry, and then added a Velda-made mineral oil and beeswax combination: 25% beeswax by volume. It has rubber feet so it won’t slide around; I expect it to get some use in her kitchen!

The companion small boards are made of the same woods, and are intended as cheese servers. They each measure 9-1/2″ long x 9-1/2″ wide x 7/8″ thick.

I bought Tigerwood for this project; caught it on sale and ended up using these pieces in 7 of the projects I made.

First step: lay out the boards in a pattern that is pleasing to the eye.

To make sure the boards stayed in order, I used 3 techniques. Each board was numbered in order, 1 – 17. I drew a chevron across the face of the board so you could tell at a glance if they were in order. Finally, I used blue painters tape to hold each half of the board together until I was ready to start glue-ups … I was taking 25 projects through the production process at the same time!

I assembled the board in two halves … it’s easier to only glue up that many at one time, and half of the project would fit into my planer; the whole project would not.

Break the tape, lay the boards out, and then rotate all but the last board 90 degrees to expose the glue face.

Cover every bit of the exposed boards with glue. No dry joints allowed!

Carefully begin clamping the boards together.

I wasn’t overly concerned with keeping the top surface flat, as this glue-up would go through the planer to flatten it out.

There are many techniques to remove squeeze out (excess glue) … I use wet paper towels to wipe most of the glue off.

Both sides have to be cleaned!

Let set 24 hours.

Plane the left and right halves at the same time to ensure they are exactly the same thickness … and then glue up the two halves, making sure the project is flat and smooth.