A Trivet - Or a Cutting Board

    My brain sees something and my mind says "I can do that" and that is what happened this week.   (Not sure I did okay, but maybe in the future there could be a little more brain along with a little more mind...)   I have done several cutting boards before out of scrap that I have had left over from a project, so this will be another cutting board only with a new different twist.   I had some scraps of hard maple and walnut laying around and a half a bottle of wood glue begging to be used up so maybe now is the time to create another DAG wood cutting board. 

   I glued up the pieces as shown at the left.   There is no particular pattern.   I just glued a maple next to a walnut and then another maple next to that walnut and so on.
   Once the glue was dried I went to the table saw and sawed off parallel strips cross ways about 1 inch wide.

    Then I took those strips and turned them so the edge grain was now at the top and I randomly mixed them up so the order was a little scrambled.  (In fact there seemed to be no order at all.)   

    Then out comes the glue bottle for a second time as I glue up all those random strips that are now on their edges.

     Once the glue dried I dug out the sanders and tried to smooth out the top and bottom side. 

     When done with that I went to the router table and rounded over all the outside edges.

     I rubbed a little food grade oil on the wood once the sanding finally was completed.

     
   
   This was my first "Edge Grain" cutting board.   

    I will admit that there were a few glitches and the pattern was maybe a little too random, but the experience was good.    I gave this one away with the idea that I am thinking of trying this again some day when I have a few new hardwood scraps laying around the shop.   I think I will be able to avoid those certain glitches next time. 

Have another good "Winter" week...