… a handtool woodworker ever hears are “hey, would you make me a cutting board?” from a friend. In my experience, cutting boards (especially the butcher block variety) are largely a way to turn scraps into revenue. And more often than not, they tend to be made from hard maple (a P.I.T.A. to work with hand tools).
But this particular friend is a very close friend, and I had some leftover 2×6 hard maple from my old workbench. And so, a rather utilitarian cutting board is born.
I’m an adult and I can own a Nerf chaingun if I want.
I had thought about doing a “Basic Project” installment on this project, but there wouldn’t be much to it. In fact, the hardest part was flattening the kiln-dried 8/4 hard maple. Step 1: Laminate the board. Step 2: Glue on four wooden feet. Step 3: Break the hard edges with a plane, sandpaper or a trim router. Step 4: Apply foodsafe oil.
It occurs to me that I always take pictures from the right side.
There is plenty left over for a second cutting board, if I so desire. Which I will not.
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The Apartment Woodworker 
Unbelievable! You just continue to blow me away with your work. The pictures are really good too, btw. I am sooo sorry I haven’t been keeping up. My life is crap right now, and I’m struggling to fix it.
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Thanks, Michael. Hang in there. It gets dark sometimes, but we do what we can.
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I am totally with you on my hatred for making cutting boards. And dare I add end-grain ones even more. Ten times the sanding, I do this when I need to workout more. Not when I want to work on something I like. 🙂
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Amen, brother.
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I felt the same way you do but then I hit on the idea of making them in the shape of Oregon, which turns out to be fun and a big hit. Yes, hard maple is a big PITA, about impossible if the grain reverses, which is usually does for me. I gave up and run the pieces through my lunchbox planer before I glue them up very carefully on a dead flat surface and then sand them smooth. As for end grain cutting boards, I will never again make one.
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Nice work! I happen to be struggling through a maple cutting board right now as well. It’s my first attempt with maple and hand tools….my card scraper is going to get a workout cleaning it up!
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