My Latest Shop Creation: A Brick Style Cutting Board

I have been using plastic cutting boards for as long as I can remember. They are cheap and when they run to the end of their life, easily replaceable. When I was able to use a cutting board made of wood, it was life changing! The quality of the cuts going through vegetables where night and day. I knew that I needed one in my life. I also knew that I wanted to make one instead of buying one. Over the weekend I stopped at a local hardwood dealer in Fort Collins and picked up some wood that could be used as a cutting board. I purchased a few board feet of cherry and double the amount of hard maple. Last year I purchased some Purpleheart off of Craigslist that I also wanted to incorporate into the cutting board. Off to the jointer and planer to square up the lumber to begin the process...

The horizontal plank is soon what the cutting board will become. I let the glue cure overnight before taking it back to the planer to mill the plank flat on both sides. After milling the plank flat, I cut it into 1 3/4" strips. I flipped every other strip and added end grain purpleheart in between, leaving me with a "brick" pattern.

I noticed that some of the strips got turned around, so before the next round of the gluing process, I made sure they were oriented correctly. Time for the glue up!

During the glue up, I added a sacrificial board to each end. This will preserve the edges during the flattening process.

This is where I am at now! I did not do any work to the cutting board last night as the Broncos game was on and I could not miss it! The next step is to flatten the board and then take the sacrificial board off of the ends, then add a finger groove on each side to make picking up the cutting board easier! In the next blog, I will show off the rest of the process and the final product. I cannot wait to have this done and use it in my kitchen!