Cutting & Serving Boards
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In my day, the first project one built in a Wood Manufacturing class at Wellesley High School was a cutting or serving board. This is for a number of reasons: First, it's a relatively simple, but rewarding project. Second, it offers experience using nearly every machine in the woodshop. And third, it helps to identify and gain familiarity with different species of wood. When combining my seven semesters of high school woodworking and two Woodworking Club fundraisers, I've put together over fifty of these eye-catching creations—my skills improving each time. I will admit, however, that to this day I seldom use the boards in my possession for their intended purpose; most are just for decoration.
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Multi-Wood Cutting Board
I built this multi-wood cutting board in my first semester of freshman year in high school. It was the very first I'd ever built, featuring five different types of wood carefully glued together. From top-to-bottom, they are: black walnut, American cherry, hard maple, African mahogany, red oak, black walnut—with the pattern repeating in the opposite direction. After sanding, I used a recently-purchased laser engraver to inscribe my insignia onto the piece. Finally, I coated it with some canola oil (a step on which I later improved) to protect the woods from splitting and to enhance their appearance.
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Multi-wood Edge Grain Serving Board 1
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I built this multi-wood serving board in my first semester of sophomore year in high school. What makes this style unique is that the woodshop didn't have enough stock over one inch thick for my design. So, I actually used the widths of the boards in place of their thicknesses by gluing the pieces face-to-face (edge grain) instead of edge-to-edge (customary). Another difference from my first board was that I applied food-safe mineral oil to the surface instead of canola oil, which performs the same functions—only better. These successes inspired me to craft another serving board in a similar manner the following year.
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Exotic Wood Cutting Boards
I built these exotic wood cutting boards in my first semester of sophomore year in high school. Immediately after finishing my first serving board, I began working on these six pieces as Christmas gifts, using exotic wood mostly from South America and Africa. In fact, the only two domestic species are hard maple and red oak, which I hope are clearly identifiable! The reddish-orange pieces are padauk, the purple wood is known as purpleheart, and the spotted brown pieces are wenge, which is slightly toxic (perhaps not the best wood to use in a cutting board!) Also, the striped pieces, zebrawood, came from an eight-foot board that cost $100 in 2016. I can hardly imagine what it would cost today.
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Extra Exotic Wood Cutting Board
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I built this extra exotic wood cutting board in my first semester of my sophomore year in high school. It's not that the wood is 'extra exotic,' but, because it's so expensive, I was determined to waste as little material as possible from my Christmas gifts. So, I put the leftovers together to form a smaller, additional board that I then gave to my woodworking instructor in appreciation for his help throughout the year.
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Multi-Wood Cutting & Serving Boards for Woodworking Club Fundraiser 2016
I built these multi-wood cutting and serving boards with the Woodworking Club during my first semester of sophomore year in high school. I personally designed each board using domestic woods available and determined the prices based on quality, appearance, size, thickness, and species of each board. The most expensive was $35.00 and the least was $10.00. I also created a custom logo for the club that was engraved onto every board. To our delight, they sold extremely quickly before Christmas and we put the money to good use. Learn more about the boards by seeing the Facebook group and catalog to the right:
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Multi-Wood Edge Grain Serving Board 2
I built this multi-wood serving board in my first semester of junior year in high school. I combined the purpleheart leftovers from my exotic cutting boards with black walnut and hard maple. This was done in the same style as my first multi-wood serving board (with edge-grain on the surface). Unlike before, however, I attached rubber feet to the bottom so that the board would rise on a table and decided against making a handle, which would require cutting into the beautiful wood.
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Extra Multi-Wood Board
I built this extra multi-wood board in my first semester of junior year in high school. Alongside the larger serving board, I had intended to make a sushi platter using leftover pieces. Unfortunately, when I went to router the edges, I failed to adjust the bit height properly, resulting in a large chunk of wood being torn off. So, I salvaged what I could on the table saw and turned the 'board' into more of a decorative stick.
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Multi-Wood Cutting & Serving Boards for Woodworking Club Fundraiser 2017
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I built these multi-wood cutting and serving boards with the Woodworking Club during my first semester of junior year in high school. Compared to the fundraiser a year prior, we nearly doubled our output, but the price range remained about the same. Once again, I designed them all by myself, performed most of the sanding, and was entirely responsible for orchestrating the catalog and sales. It may have been a group project, but I did vastly more than anyone else! As in 2016, we sold out very quickly and raised hundreds of dollars for our charity work. See the Facebook group or catalog to the right for more detail:
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Finished Multi-wood Cutting Boards
I finished these multi-wood cutting boards in my second semester of junior year in high school. True to my fear of wasting wood, I sought to make something attractive out of several boards that students from past years had abandoned in the woodshop at varying stages of completion. All of them, however, were in rough condition and required significant work. Nevertheless, I produced the one with two strips of bloodwood (first image below) in just one week and then the other three (second image) the week after.
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Mr. Peterson's Hard Maple Cutting Board
I restored my woodworking instructor's hard/curly maple cutting board in my second semester of junior year in high school. The project was essentially a belated Christmas gift, as I repaired an old cutting board (which I did not make) that had begun to separate in several places after having been run through the dishwasher. I replaced some of the pieces and then processed the board as I would any other. Finally, we engraved some fun food designs onto the surface.
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Mr. Mustard's Finished Multi-wood Cutting Board
I finished this multi-wood cutting board for my freshman English teacher in my first semester of junior year in high school. As with the other 'finished' cutting boards, I completed the abandoned project of an unknown student before engraving a homey design and presenting the piece as a gift. Unfortunately, within a few months, Mr. Mustard's wife made the all-too-common mistake of running the board through the dishwasher. The wood was warped, the colors distorted, and—top top it off—the thing was split in two! So, he returned it to me and after re-sanding, re-gluing, and applying a fresh coat of oil, and even bleaching the wood, I (almost) managed to return the board to its former glory.
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