A Cutting Board Thing

   There are times that someone will give me an idea of something they would like to see me build.   And there are times (this is most of the time) where I see a chunk of wood that is headed for the campfire ring and I think that I (Only me) can build some kind of masterpiece out of that precious wood that someone else is simply tossing away.   (Yep! This was one of the thoughts for this week.)
   This is wood that had been pressed together into a five by five square and would be placed in the center of a square frame.   These posts were used as supports to hold the hand rails in an open stairway.   The outside of the frame look really nice and sounded solid, but the center - made up of mostly scrap wood.

   Now I'm thinking that if a person were to crosscut 1 inch thick pieces off of one of those center posts that maybe he could glue them up into a cutting board.   The picture to the left shows some of those inch thick pieces.   In theory, it seemed like a good idea, but in real life I had to question just what kind of wood was used in those posts.    Most of it appeared to be a soft wood of some sort.  Probably poplar or pine.    A true cutting board should be made out of a hardwood.   Ideally it should be cherry or hard maple.

   Oh well, this was going to be one of those experimental projects anyway.    The wood was free and my cost was going to be the glue.   So I started clamping these little squares together.    (Like I said, this was a DAG imagination thing so don't judge too quickly.  Or if you do, please don't comment aloud.)







   I ended up with three projects.   One consisted of just one square.   One was made up of four squares and the other was made up of six squares.  
   Once the glue was dried I went about doing my favorite task of sanding wood.    Of course this was all end grain and the sanding seemed to go on for ever.  (Have I ever mentioned how I feel about sanding wood?)

      When I felt that I had done my fair share of sanding, I took a break and looked up "How to build a thickness sander" on the internet.     (Someday I will have to look into to that if I ever plan to make a career out of building cutting boards.)    I took the four section board and cut it into a circle.   The last thing I did was to round over all the edges.     I have to admit that the surface seemed to hardened as I continued to sand.   The boards ended up nice and smooth.    I rubbed all surfaces with an edible mineral oil finish.  

   I'm not sure yet.    It could be a cutting board.   Maybe it could be a coaster.   Or maybe it could be a trivet.   (Or maybe it could all be pretty campfire wood.)   I'm thinking that when the kids come home for Christmas that we'll have a little survey and see what the everyone thinks.
 
   One week left till Christmas.   I better get off the internet and spend a little more time in the shop.