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Here's a cutting board I finished recently. (I've had a backlog of photos to shoot.) It's about 18" x 11" x 1 1/2" thick, made from some maple that Scott Spencer sent me last August. (He made me a deal I couldn't refuse...thanks again, Scott.) 
It's a simple square block pattern, but I learned simple is not necessarily easy.
I had a couple of glue joints that slipped on me after clamping, so there are a couple rows of blocks that are about 1/32" to 1/16" out of line. That's huge at a 4-way corner joint. Also, I didn't get the finger recesses on the ends perfect. I wobbled a tiny bit at the end of each cut. (It was my first time to try making the recesses; I think I'll change the process a bit next time.)
My other major error on this was using Titebond II instead of plastic resin glue. I knew from first-hand experience that Titebond creeps, and it's especially noticeable on end-grain cutting boards, but dummy me, I just grabbed the Titebond and about 15 minutes after getting the first clamp-up together, I realized my mistake. Now that it's finished, it's creeping. I can sand it with 400 grit and make the joints completely imperceptible to the touch of a finger. Like glass. Come back the next day, and you can feel every joint plain as day. With plastic resin glue, this wouldn't happen.
This board was originally intended to be a gift to my nephew, who's in culinary school and needs a real chef's chopping block. After making the variety of mistakes that I did, I decided I couldn't give a "factory second" as a gift, so this one's going into my kitchen instead. I can use a big block like this one, and I can live with the flaws. They'll be a reminder how not to do things. (It's sort of ironic that after making dozens of fancy cutting boards for sale or gifts, this is the first one for me.) I'll make a new one for my nephew, and using this experience, I think I'll go with more of a staggered brick joint pattern instead of checkerboard squares. I'll use a bit of extra wood, but that way 1/32" of slop won't be nearly as apparent.
I also plan to make it even larger than this one...somewhere around 24" x 18".
Hopefully by sharing my mistakes someone else can learn how NOT to do one of these.
It's a simple square block pattern, but I learned simple is not necessarily easy. I had a couple of glue joints that slipped on me after clamping, so there are a couple rows of blocks that are about 1/32" to 1/16" out of line. That's huge at a 4-way corner joint. Also, I didn't get the finger recesses on the ends perfect. I wobbled a tiny bit at the end of each cut. (It was my first time to try making the recesses; I think I'll change the process a bit next time.)
My other major error on this was using Titebond II instead of plastic resin glue. I knew from first-hand experience that Titebond creeps, and it's especially noticeable on end-grain cutting boards, but dummy me, I just grabbed the Titebond and about 15 minutes after getting the first clamp-up together, I realized my mistake. Now that it's finished, it's creeping. I can sand it with 400 grit and make the joints completely imperceptible to the touch of a finger. Like glass. Come back the next day, and you can feel every joint plain as day. With plastic resin glue, this wouldn't happen.
This board was originally intended to be a gift to my nephew, who's in culinary school and needs a real chef's chopping block. After making the variety of mistakes that I did, I decided I couldn't give a "factory second" as a gift, so this one's going into my kitchen instead. I can use a big block like this one, and I can live with the flaws. They'll be a reminder how not to do things. (It's sort of ironic that after making dozens of fancy cutting boards for sale or gifts, this is the first one for me.) I'll make a new one for my nephew, and using this experience, I think I'll go with more of a staggered brick joint pattern instead of checkerboard squares. I'll use a bit of extra wood, but that way 1/32" of slop won't be nearly as apparent.
I also plan to make it even larger than this one...somewhere around 24" x 18". Hopefully by sharing my mistakes someone else can learn how NOT to do one of these.
