Wood Whisperer - End Grain Cutting Board

glenn bradley

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Nothing original here. Plus or minus some small fractions this is just the basic FWW-Mag / Mark Spagnuolo board. This is only my second one and I want to get comfortable before I start getting creative. Walnut and Padouk. Here's the result of the first glue-up round after some scraping.

CB-wal-pad (1).jpg

Slice and dice:

CB-wal-pad (2).jpg . CB-wal-pad (3).jpg

Flip and glue:

CB-wal-pad (4).jpg . CB-wal-pad (6).jpg

Despite the number of clamps there is no real killer pressure here. I don't want to starve the joints which are already thirsty end grain. I get some good squeeze out to verify the surfaces are covered and then just cinch up.

CB-wal-pad (5).jpg

IMHO, it is always easier to figure out where to protect your clamps from glue than to clean glue off of them.
 
Glenn, A very nice board, but does not appear to be glued up end grain style. Maybe just these tired old eyes though. From the photos it appears you marked and cut it and flipped the alternate strips but didn't turn them end grain up before final glue up. Was that your intention?
 
Am I missing something? My problem too. From a cook's perspective, in the primo cutting boards the end grain is what the knife goes into, so the knife doesn't cut the wood fibers, and all the glue is on the edge grain. These aren't throw away - they are attractive, but just don't appear to be end grain cutting boards.
 
MY question is: Assuming this board will also be used for cutting meat, will there be a blood groove along the perimeter? Ignore question if used just for vegetables?
 
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Actually I'm also confused...

In the LAST photo, it does not appear to be end grain, as Ted mentioned.
However in the SECOND-last photo, where the board is in the clamps, it DOES appear to be end grain up. :huh:

ps: do you have a thickness sander? I'm not sure how the guys without one of those do a good job on end-grain boards.
 
Apologies all. Bad picture sequencing. The last pic showing how I tape the clamp bars for protection does have the parts in a face-grain-presented orientation. Under all those clamps in the second to last pic I did indeed turn the pieces once more to present end grain to the surfaces. Sorry about the confusion :eek:.

Art, I did get myself a Supermax Tools 19-38 for my birthday. It took about 35 minutes for me to realize why those that have something like this wonder how they got along without it :thumb:. It really sped things along in preparing the large panels on a few recent projects. In between cutting boards and trivets I plan to make a drawered stand for the beast. Nothing gets to occupy that much real estate in my shop without acting as a storage unit :D.

P.s. Yes on the blood groove.
 
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