Cutting boards!

I love making cutting boards.  They are a satisfying project in that you can have a finished end product in two short trips to the shoppe!  And, using the planer, you get to make tons of sawdust!  I try to mill up whatever grows locally, whenever the opportunity arises.  I air dry slabs of black walnut, black locust, maple, oak, ash, and any exotic wood or scraps that I can find.  I hardly ever throw anything away, and the beauty of cutting boards is that you can make some real gems out of what would otherwise be scrap or kindling.

My glue of choice is Titebond 3, which is food safe.  Traditionally I have oiled the boards with mineral oil, again food safe.  Just recently I have started using pure tung oil, from a company called Real Milk Paint.  Again, it is food safe.  Since it is pure, it takes weeks to dry (polymerize).  Mineral oil does not polymerize, so the finish, while beautiful, is very short lived.  Pure tung oil DOES polymerize (over weeks), leaving a more durable finish.  Since I just started doing this, we'll see how long it lasts.

Here are some of my latest creations:

End grain maple in the middle, flanked by side grain black walnut.  The cracks have been filled with epoxy, and then finished with tung oil.

I really like this board.  It has ash, black walnut, Angelique (the dark porous pieces on the end), maple, purple heart, and the reddish wood from the Philippines.  What I love about this is the triangular pieces I scavenged from my buddy.  He had some scraps left over from a project he had done, and these were incorporated to give it an interesting geometric look.  I love the colors.  Finished in tung oil.

End grain maple with cracks filled with epoxy, finished with tung oil

This board has several species including black walnut, Angelique, maple, a thin strip of purple heart, and a reddish wood from the Philipines.  Finished in tung oil.