[ Motor whirring ] [ Whirring stops ] ♪ It's probably the classic woodworking project, and it makes a great gift, so today on "The Woodsmith Shop," we're making patterned cutting boards, so it's time to start building.

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And by... ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ You know, Chris, I think if there's one project that I could consider a gateway into woodworking, it's cutting boards.

Everybody needs a cutting board.

It's a fantastic gift, and we've got a great cutting-board project for you here.

Yeah, you know, I think most of us start building cutting boards by making an end-grain cutting board.

Usually, that's gluing up strips, cutting them apart, and then rotating them 90 degrees and re-gluing them.

But that's not how this quilted pattern cutting board is made.

No, end-grain blocks but a little bit of a spin on it.

If you'll notice here, there are solid blocks, but there's also combination blocks -- In this case, maple and cherry, maple and walnut, and, I think, walnut and cherry, as well.

By doing that, you have thousands and thousands of different combinations that are possible.

Exactly.

But if you'd like a kickoff point for your pattern and you need a set of plans, we have a free set available on our website, WoodsmithShop.com.

Let's go build a cutting board.

I think so.

It starts with blocks.

Lots of blocks.

The quilted cutting board is a great project, but to be successful at it, we have to be careful in processing our wood.

Now, that care starts with the joiner.

The first thing we're going to do is go ahead and join the face and one edge of all of our rough stock to give us reference points.

Before we turn on the joiner is we take a square, and we make sure that the fence is 90 degrees to the table.

Don't assume anything about your tools.

Check to make sure things are right before you start.

So with the reference faces established on our rough stock, we're then going to head over to the planer, and using a planer, we'll pull things down to an inch and a quarter.

An inch and a quarter is our rough dimension for all of our square stock.

With that done, our next chore is to go to the table saw.

And, just like we did with the joiner, we want to always make sure that our blade is where we think it is.

We want to check and make sure, so when we cut for 90 degrees, we check to make sure that blade is 90 degrees.

When it's time to rip at 45, verify that.

So, at the table saw, we're going to go ahead and create our triangular pieces for the combination squares of maple and cherry and maple and walnut.

And with that done, we'll rip all of our remaining stock to square.

With all of our stock ripped to triangular section and to square, or next step is to go ahead and do our glue-ups to create the combination squares.

And after we're done with that, we'll process everything through the planer to be absolutely consistent in its dimensions.

Gluing up the combination squares can be a bit of a challenge.

We need our two parts to accurately register with each other, and we need to be able to apply enough pressure for a good glue joint.

To solve that challenge, I've created a simple jig.

I found some 2x4s in the shop, and I cut a triangular groove in the face of each 2x4.

The two 2x4s make a cradle, which will hold both of our pieces to form our combination squares.

And when I clamp things together, there'll be a line, and I'll get good, even clamping pressure for a tight glue joint.

So let's apply a little glue and clamp up our first set of combination squares.

♪ ♪ ♪ The next step in processing our blanks for the cutting board is to run everything through the planer for consistent sizing.

Now, one thing we need to watch out for is these combination blanks, the maple and walnut and maple and cherry.

You need to be very careful to make sure that any glue squeeze-out and any edges that protrude past the face are scraped away, because if you don't, it's going to tilt the piece slightly as it passes through the planer, and that will result in a trapezoidal shaped square, so not very square, and that's going to give you a lot of grief when it comes time to assemble things.

Also, when we run these through the planer, we want to make sure to take a little bit off every single face.

And by doing that, the intersection of the two woods will always remain symmetric running corner to corner.

And I think with the whole blanks, too, it's also a good idea to go ahead and take a little wood off every single face, and that way, you just get a good, clean, consistent face on every piece.

So when we're done with that, we'll head over to the table saw and cut all of our pieces to length.

♪ To cut all of our blanks down to 2-inch squares for our cutting board, I'm going to use a cutoff blade on my table saw and a sled with an adjustable fence.

Now, one thing that's important to remember -- Make sure that you remove all of the snipe off the ends of each of these blanks.

We only want true, square, well-dimensioned stock to work with.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ All right.

So, once Chris is done at the table saw, I'm left with a big pile of blocks.

Now we have to arrange those into a pattern that we like, and I think I have that here.

And while you're arranging your blocks, you might as well take a few minutes and just make a pass on each side on a piece of sandpaper, and that's really going to clean up the edges and remove any chip-out burrs that could give us problems with our glue joint.

So now that that's all in place, I think I'm happy with that pattern.

Now, of course, you can make up a pattern of your own, or you can go completely random with it.

But if you'd like a guideline for some patterns, they're available in the plans, and the plans are available on our website, WoodsmithShop.com.

So now I think we're ready to go ahead and get some glue on here.

Now, obviously, there's a lot of blocks here, and the glue-up could really get a little messy, so you need a couple things that are really going to help it go smoothly.

The first of those is going to be a glue-up jig, and I have that here.

And really, all that is, is a MDF table that has a couple of fences on it, and it's important that the fences are attached 90 degrees to each other.

That way, our cutting board has a good registration point, and we can keep everything square.

And we also need a clamping cleat, and that's because we're going to work in two-row increments, and we'll use that cleat to pull everything tight to one of the fences.

I went ahead and applied a thin coat of paste wax to everything, so the glue will release, and we're not going to actually glue our cutting board down to the board.

So the other thing we're going to need is our glue.

And here, especially with cutting boards, I like to make sure I'm using a waterproof glue, because inevitably this board is going to get thrown into the kitchen sink, and you don't want the glue to start releasing.

So make sure you're using a waterproof glue that's waterproof when it dries.

I also like to have a brush handy.

I use a chip brush, and I use a chip brush that I've trimmed the bristles off a little bit, so it's just a little bit more stiff.

So now I think we can go ahead and get everything glued up.

Now, like I said, we're going to work in two-row increments.

And we're going to start by applying glue to the bottom left-most block.

We're going to apply it on two faces -- on the inside face and the face that's going to be on the row that's next.

And as we work outward, keep applying glue to each face and adding blocks.

Once all those blocks are in place, we'll go ahead and apply that clamping cleat to pull everything tight.

♪ ♪ All right.

There we go.

Now, the most important thing here is to make sure you get glue in between each block and keep your pattern how you have it laid out.

We're going to let this tack up, probably about 15 or 20 minutes.

We'll come back, remove the clamping caul, and then we'll work on the next two rows.

All right.

So now that these have had about 15 or 20 minutes to set up, we can go ahead and move them out of the clamping jig.

And what you'll want to do here is make sure you remove any glue squeeze-out out of that inside face.

We're going to be gluing onto that, and glue doesn't like to stick to itself, so you're going to want to clean that off with a scraper as much as you can.

And now it's just a simple process of repeating that process and adding blocks as we go.

We'll work on the next two rows.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ So, there we go.

Even though there's a lot of little blocks here, with a little bit of prep and a little bit of time, the glue-up goes pretty smoothly.

Now, once you have those last two rows in place, you're going to want to get the clamps on and really let that glue cure.

Couple hours, and they should be good.

Then you can pull the clamps off and get ready to surface it, but for that, you're going to need a router and a Phil.

I've always thought that the process of building a woodworking project starts with taking big pieces of wood, cutting them down into little pieces of wood, and then gluing them back together into big pieces of wood.

And that's certainly been the case with this cutting board, but we're now at the point where we can start to flatten it and reveal the true surface and the appearance of what we want.

Now, ordinarily, this is kind of the opportunity where I want to reach for a hand tool, like a hand plane.

But with an end-grain cutting board, that's not a good idea.

It's going to take a long time.

You're going to end up having to sharpen your blade probably 6,000 or 7,000 times.

The same thing goes if you think that you can run an end-grain cutting board through your planer.

Those end-grain fibers are just going to make a mess of the planer knives, and you're going to get tear-out all over the place.

So what do you do?

Sanding would take far too long, so instead, I'm going to turn to one of my favorite portable power tools, and that's a router.

I'm going to turn the router kind of into an overhead planer.

So I've attached the router to a big, long carriage here that will slide across a set of runners that I have clamped on either side of the cutting-board blank.

And there's a couple of plywood spacers here that prevent me from running the bit into the runners on the sides.

So what I'll do is set the bit and then make passes up and down the length of the cutting board, smoothing off and flattening the surface.

Then I can flip it over and repeat the process on the other side.

Now, for the bit, I'm going to use what's called a bowl-and-tray bit.

You could use any kind of big, flat, straight bit here, but what I like about the bowl and tray bit is that it has these rounded corners on the sides, so it's less likely to leave any scoring marks as you make each pass.

Those could be tough to sand out later on, but the bowl-and-tray bit kind of feathers those edges and leaves a really smooth surface.

I think we're ready to get started.

The only thing here is that you want to take things in small passes, so think something like 1/8 inch or less.

So I've set the bit now so that it's just going to knock off the high points and hopefully give us a nice, clean edge.

And from here, you're really going to see things improve dramatically.

♪ ♪ ♪ There's no doubt about it.

Doing this is a pretty messy process, but what you can see is that now we have -- The surface of the cutting board is level.

From taking a heavy cut, you can see there's some burn marks on here.

We are working with maple, after all, and it is going to burn pretty easily, so what I want to do now is make a second pass, much lighter, and clean up this surface, so I'll move the router a little bit quicker.

Once that's done, I can flip this over and do the same thing on the other side.

Then we'll be ready for some sanding.

♪ ♪ ♪ I took about three passes on each face of the cutting board to get to this kind of surface.

All in all, it was about 15, 20 minutes.

What you end up here with is a nice, smooth surface.

But there are some places where I have some burn marks from the bit.

I got a little hairiness along the edge here where the bit kind of chipped out on the side.

It's time now for some sanding, and, frankly, you're not going to be able to escape it.

Even the best, sharpest bit is still going to leave a little bit of ridge marks and some burning that you'll want to remove.

Now, for that, I'm going to use a random orbit sander, and this isn't the time to be dainty.

I'm going to start with an 80-grit disk and pretty much stick with it.

It's also not the time to be cheap.

You want to replace the disk as soon as you feel that it's starting to wear down a little bit.

Because you're working with tough end-grain, especially this maple, it's going to wear through the disks pretty quickly.

So it's going to take some time, but what you want to do is remove all of those straight-line marks left over from the bit and remove the burning as much as possible.

It'll take a little bit of time, but the results are definitely worthwhile.

Working on a cutting board like this, you really can stop sanding whenever you're satisfied with the surface.

There's no magic grit number that you're trying to get to.

Now, for me, especially on an end-grain cutting board, I'll stop right at 80 grit or, if I really want to, go up to 120 grit.

The real key here is removing those bit marks and any burn marks.

Now, this is the surface that I'm looking for, like you can see here, and it's pretty smooth even for 80 grit, and let's be honest -- it's a cutting board.

It's going to get used, and it's going to get dinged up a little bit.

If you want to take it up a notch just a little bit, what I like to do then is to take a freshly sharpened card scraper.

And you can go across the surface.

The card scraper's also nice for some of those stubborn burn marks that you just can't get rid of sanding.

You can go at it with the scraper... ...and target those areas, and you can really start to see the color of the different species of wood stand out.

Once we've smoothed out the surfaces here, we'll tackle an edge treatment and then get this cutting board ready for some finish.

Once you have the surfaces smoothed out, it's time to add the crowning detail to the cutting board.

Now, the plans call for cutting in some handholds on one of the faces of the cutting boards.

You can certainly do that, but for me, a cutting board this large isn't something that I'm going to be using as a tray and carrying about.

So instead, what I want to do is just ease the edges.

Since we're dealing with end-grain fibers here, those edges are prone to chipping out.

You can already see that that's happened in a few places just in building the cutting board.

That chamfer is going to reinforce the edge and help this cutting board look as good as it can for years to come.

Now, that chamfer is going to serve a second purpose.

It'll create just enough of a lip that I can get my fingers on it to be able to carry the cutting board from one counter to another or to simply just flip it over.

It's a pretty simple detail.

And then we'll get Chris and Logan back together, talk about finishing cutting boards and how to take care of them.

♪ ♪ You know, the more and more I've been working with rough stock, the more and more I've had an appreciation for chalk.

It's great for marking out your part locations and kind of roughing out a board and seeing what parts you can get out of it.

The one problem is if you've ever used chalk with an open-grain wood, such as this oak or walnut or anything else that's open grain, it doesn't remove terribly easily.

Sure, you can sand it, but those open grains kind of catch all that little chalk dust, and then you're left with that little white haze where you wrote at.

Well, Dan Martin of Galena, Ohio, has an easy way to remove this.

He grabs either a soft-bristled brass brush or a stiff brush and he just brushes it away.

That way, you can avoid that white dust getting down into the pores, and you don't have to fight it when you're finishing your project.

Once you've completed your cutting board, the last step is to talk about finish.

And here, I'm thinking about two things in particular.

One is the appearance of the cutting board, and the second is protection.

But when you're finishing a cutting board, you're never really done.

No.

Every time you use a cutting board, of course, you leave a little knife scar in there, so after a little while, you're going to need to apply finish again, and that's why I actually like to use mineral oil.

It's easy to apply, and it's easy to reapply.

See, now, I like having something that's a little bit more protection, so I have a mineral oil and beeswax blend -- looking for something soft that I can easily buff in and then rub out pretty smoothly.

Exactly, and that's the same blend that I like.

I like to go a little bit heavier on the beeswax, so it adds a little bit more water resistance.

But it is important to note that no matter what finish you use on your cutting board, it's never actually waterproof, so you don't want to stick it in the dishwasher.

It doesn't want to get thrown in the sink full of water, either.

But once you have it, and you've used it a little bit, it's always easy to sand it back down and apply another finish.

Right.

So I think we can probably go ahead and get some finish on that guy, right?

Yep.

All right.

So what we have here is, in a double boiler, some mineral oil and beeswax that we're going to apply while the beeswax is liquid.

It goes on pretty quickly, but you have to act quickly.

Otherwise, it will start to dry.

One thing I like about the beeswax is it doesn't darken the wood quite as much as the mineral oil does.

Then what I like to do is I like to get a good, thick coat, and you can see how this is starting to really solidify on there.

Then I'll stick this into an oven, probably about 150 degrees.

It's about the melting point of beeswax.

It'll get all this back into liquid form, and then it will really soak into the fibers.

And usually what I'll do is I'll keep applying this until it looks like it's not soaking up anymore, wipe the excess off, let it cool.

Then you can really buff out the top.

It's probably a good idea to put a cookie sheet or something underneath this thing when it's in the oven.

Yeah, I do that coming from experience.

So now we've talked about the finish, but one of the big things with this cutting board process is all the options that you can use for creating your own.

Now, when this plan first came out in the magazine, I took some of the leftover pieces and made a much smaller cutting board that I could use, and we use this one every day at our house.

And this pattern looks pretty cool.

And every time I see it, it looks like an owl face to me.

I did something a little different with all the excess pieces that I had after building a lot of cutting boards, and then I made a cutting board that's as random as I could come with, and that's actually a little harder than it seems.

You know, and I went the other way.

Instead of doing a end-grain cutting board, which does take a little bit of time, I went more utility, and so I made this larger elm cutting board, which elm's a great wood for it, and I actually made this edge-grain.

So this is just one of those things that's not as durable as an end-grain, but it's a utility piece.

It's a piece that I have to use in my house, in particular, when I'm doing stuff like cleaning fish.

I wanted it big, and it's just strips that are ripped and turned 90 degrees, and the elm works really nice for it.

Mm-hmm.

Well, it looks great.

What have you got here?

Well, here, we took some of the leftover blocks from when you were making the blocks and glued up what we had into a pattern and then cut them apart at the band saw to make some coasters.

Fun!

I love it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a great way to use those little scraps that are left over.

So, end-grain cutting boards have all kinds of options.

You can make cutting boards in all kinds of patterns and sizes, even some coasters.

They make great gift ideas, and when you're done, you can see us right back here in the woodsmith shop.

♪ ♪ ♪ Phil: If you'd like to get more video tips and techniques, sign up for the free weekly Woodsmith eTip.

Every week, you'll receive an e-mail with a video tip to get more out of your table saw, router table, and more.

Sign up at WoodsmithShop.com.

Everything in today's show comes from the newly expanded Woodsmith Guild Edition, with shop projects, plans, tips, and techniques.

To get a free preview issue of the Woodsmith Guild Edition and a free "Woodsmith" book, go to WoodsmithShop.com.

In addition, past seasons of "The Woodsmith Shop" are available on DVD.

Or you can watch them online from your computer, tablet, or mobile device.

For more information, go to WoodsmithShop.com.

Announcer: Major funding for "The Woodsmith Shop" has been provided by... Old Masters -- craftsman-quality stains and finishes since 1953.

♪ Additional funding provided by... ♪ Titebond wood glues -- the pro's advantage.

♪ And by... Kreg -- from the first cut to the final assembly, providing woodworkers with products that help to simplify woodworking challenges.

Kreg.

And by... ♪