Finally finished Christmas....

[theduke]

I suppose I'll make my first thread.

My wife likes to cut cheese slices and eat cheese so I had been playing with random woods and glue ups only to find out in like October I wasn't using the right kind of titebond, so I sat on my idea for a month and then on Black Friday WC had their deal on these boards so I bought 2 kits and took some out from one kit to make it smaller for the cheese cutting board and finished it and gave it to the wife in the middle of December, when I had finished my finals.  It was her birthday present (which was only about 7 months late).

So then I decided to make another board for a cutting board and I took the leftovers from the first kit and added them or most of them to the second kit to make a really big cutting board, which my wife loves.  My biggest regret for a beginner is I didn't make a jig to make the juice grooves and just thought I could use a straight edge, 2 stops and a bullnose bit in my router, but it didn't work out perfectly so the lines never seemed to be perfectly straight which bothered me enough that I kept widening the grooves out over and over, trying to get them perfect.  It never worked out but when I got it down to only 2 or 3 small errors, I called it done and went into sanding and I think 2 of the errors got sanded away and only 1 mishap still shows just slightly.  Sanding the grooves by hand is a nightmare, but once it was finished, my wife loved it so I suppose that's the important part.

Just figured I'd share a small win for me since I'm pretty new to all of these, but maybe it'll be helpful to someone else.  Have a great day!

[Kev]

Nicely done!  If you never make mistakes, you'd have nothing to learn!

What species are the thin dark strips?  Also, what finish did you use?

I need to do one of those cheese boards..  Just not sure I want my wife to see them 😉

 

[theduke]

12 minutes ago, Kev said:

Nicely done!  If you never make mistakes, you'd have nothing to learn!

What species are the thin dark strips?  Also, what finish did you use?

I need to do one of those cheese boards..  Just not sure I want my wife to see them 😉

 

I'm new enough I still have lots to learn, even if I did something perfectly, lol.  It's the joy of being a beginner.

So the dark strips I believe are wenge, and the thicker strips are angelique, I believe.  Here's the kit I bought two of, I think...  (https://www.woodcraft.com/products/1-1-2-x-10-x-16-angelique-maple-hard-wenge-wood-cutting-board-large-woodcraft-woodshop?via=573621f669702d06760016d9%2C57645b7d69702d3c42000d03%2C57645ba569702d3c42000d04)

For the finish, I did baby oil (since I had a lot and it was food grade safe) and then I did the butcher block conditioner once the board was soaked with the oil.  I think Coop showed a picture of the same product on his charq. board.

Woodcraft sells the kits for the wood that I used as well as the cheese board slicer so most of this was store-bought, kind of.  I mean I glued everything up, planed it down, sanded down to remove the planer snipe, etc.  I didn't try to get the wood grain to "pop" by spritzing it with water, mainly because I was worried I would have screwed it up.  Baby steps, since, I led with, I'm a beginner.  The grooves were all I could handle I think.  I think the cheese slicing kit was only like 10-14 dollars.  It wasn't that bad for what it turned out as I think.  I mean my wife loves it, so that's the only point that really matters. 

It also allowed me to talk her into letting me buy a planer I found on CL that needs some work.  That's the next thing with my free time.  Then I want to make a box that looks like a book for her birthday maybe (since she's a teacher and has a master's in literacy, I thought it would be fitting).

[Kev]

Interesting choice of finish that I'm not sure I'd thought of using..  Typically, mineral oil is used.  I'm curious to see how the baby oil holds up.

10 minutes ago, theduke said:

  I didn't try to get the wood grain to "pop" by spritzing it with water, mainly because I was worried I would have screwed it up.   

I'm a little puzzled..  I don't know of any water trick to make the grain pop.  I know you can pre-raise the grain with water (which isn't needed in this case) and you can add some dye to get it to sink into the grain and then sand it back but, I'm not quite sure what you're referring to?  The few times I've done this, I think I used alcohol and dye.

[theduke]

3 minutes ago, Kev said:

Interesting choice of finish that I'm not sure I'd thought of using..  Typically, mineral oil is used.  I'm curious to see how the baby oil holds up.

I'm a little puzzled..  I don't know of any water trick to make the grain pop.  I know you can pre-raise the grain with water (which isn't needed in this case) and you can add some dye to get it to sink into the grain and then sand it back but, I'm not quite sure what you're referring to?  The few times I've done this, I think I used alcohol and dye.

I read somewhere that baby oil is just more expensive mineral oil, so that's why I went that route, since I had a lot of it having 2 kids under the age of 3, it was their contribution to the present 😉

the pre-raise the grain with water is what I think we're both referring to the same thing when I say making it "pop"

[Kev]

Just now, theduke said:

I read somewhere that baby oil is just more expensive mineral oil, so that's why I went that route, since I had a lot of it having 2 kids under the age of 3, it was their contribution to the present 😉

the pre-raise the grain with water is what I think we're both referring to the same thing when I say making it "pop"

Ok..  That won't do anything to "pop" the grain but, it's helpful often times with water based finishes.  A water based finish will raise the grain of the wood leaving a "fuzzy" finish that's just not smooth to the touch.  Spritzing it with water before finish and then sanding it back will he reduce this effect when using a water based finish.