The becoming of age project for each woodworker 😊 I just wanted a wooden chopping board for my meats as I was using plastic, so I had a good excuse to make one. I used some white oak and walnut and just wanted to go for a simple checker/chessboard pattern. I forgot some pictures in the beginning, so we’re starting here with strips of wood already glued together.
I had some small gaps in the oak that wasn’t initially visible. I ended up deciding to just route it all out and fill with another piece of oak.
Filled in the gap and sanded flat.
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My quality control officer also making sure my table saw is in working order… power wasn’t plugged so he’s all safe 😊
Plugged in power, made sure the officer would check in later and cut the strips again.
Having a look at placement. I tried to alter some of the grain orientation so it would look nice.
Made a mess during glue up as i had turned some pieces the wrong way. Lesson learned! Eventually i was able to rectify my errors.
Glued up and ready for flattening. I ran down to my local wood shop and asked if i could use the jointer/planer there which worked out great.
Came back home and made a quick template for the edges and rounded them for a more friendly feel.
Rounded off all the other edges with a roundover bit.
Here I used 2 pieces of scrap oak to make some fences so I could route a little handle on both sides of the board and ensure it was centred.
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Sanded from 80 > 120 > 180 > 240. I also sprayed water on it on the 2nd time for each grit to remove more fibres and get a cleaner end result.
Finally oiling time! I just soaked it in oil and let it sit overnight and oiled it again the next day until it wouldn’t really take any oil anymore.
