Making an End Grain Cutting Board - Maple and Walnut

Making an End Grain Cutting Board - Chopping Block

I have always created projects with the intention of turning a small budget into a beautiful, valuable piece. Nothing excites me more than taking wood the average craftsman would throw away, and turning it into a masterpiece!

Here is one of my current projects, a Maple end grain chopping block with walnut stripes, and some insight into how I made it.

This is the wood I began with. 1.5"x3" chunks of maple, roughly 18 inches long (although many varied) One of my main sources of hardwood for cutting boards is flooring mill end cuts. I go to my local mill, and purchase a large crate or bundle of hardwood for a very reasonable $30.00. It's not all choice, but some of it is incredible. Its a grab bag, always different and it influences my work greatly.

I would recommend anyone just starting out to get these end cuts from a local hardwood mill, even if its only to supplement your wood supply. I find small pieces of walnut quite often that work great when combined with maple, as I do in this next piece.

First you must straighten out all the edges of the wood. Mill scraps are unreliable at best when it comes to straight edges. I run them through my table saw, or planer if the pieces are small. Straight edges are vital to the success of your project. Hold two of your pieces up against each other, and inspect how well they join. If there are any gaps, send them carefully through your table saw or planer again.

Once your edges are straight, glue and clamp time! You should have pieces that are the same thickness at this point, or close at least. If you want different color woods in your project (like in my example), put a piece of different wood(s) in there anywhere but the middle. My initial glue up had 5 pieces of maple, I put one thin piece of walnut to the right of the middle maple piece so it was offset. Spread a quality glue (I use Titebond 3) liberally on each edge that will join with another edge. Now clamp, pipe clamps are ideal as they give the wood a pipe to sit on, keeping them flush with each other.

After 30-60 minutes the piece should be dry. Unclamp and run through your planer until you are satisfied that you have a flat surface, The planer may chip the edge that passes through it last, you can either cut that off later, OR glue a piece of pine on the front and back edge of the board (see 3rd picture below) What you currently have is an EDGE grain cutting board, one where the grains would run parallel along the cutting surface. You can always use it this way, but I wanted to spice mine up into an END grain board.

To make an end grain board, you make crosscuts off your initial piece, the size of the cuts will determine the HEIGHT of the cutting board. Each piece will be rotated 90 degrees so the grain is now standing straight up (you will see growth rings on the UP side) and glued back together. In my example I also turned every other piece 180 degrees towards me, so the walnut stripes would alternate up and down. In between each piece I placed 1 inch maple end cut strips (of the same 2 inch height) from another board I had made. Looking good already right?

To trim the edges to make a perfect square cutting board, I use a table saw or miter saw. 

The finishing can be the most daunting part. The surface is still rough though, so planing will be necessary. Anyone who knows tools will likely scoff at this statement, "Planing against the grain? Blasphemy!" And they are not wrong. Manufacturers recommendations will say "Plane with the grain!" for the safety of you, your equipment and your wood. However, if we follow some precautions and adequately set up, we will be fine. I promise! Not to mention, we will save an immense amount of time when compared to using sanding equipment instead,

You will see I have trimmed my board down to 12" so it fits nicely in my planer. On each flush end I have glued a piece of pine, this is vital. The blades inside the planer can sometimes split boards on the corners, when planing END grain such as this. A small piece of sacrificial pine glued to the end will solve this problem.

PLANE SLOWLY! In normal situations I would plane after adjusting the depth 1/4 turn every pass, but with end grain its more like 1/8 turn each pass. Listen to the machine, and always step to the side after inserting the board into the planer. (just in case something flies out) However unlikely this is, better safe than sorry,

Once this heavy beast makes a few passes, you're going to be shocked by its beauty. When its level and smooth, cut off those sacrificial pine pieces, and thank them for a job well done. We've made it to the final phase, finishing and sanding,

Some shops have fancy drum sanders that act like a planer, just feed in one end and they do the work for you. You can also use a simple palm sander like I have above, starting with a low 60 grit and working up to 300. I also have several belt sanders which speed up the sanding significantly. A table sander (mounted sander that often has a side disc for smoothing edges, corners) comes in very handy here for me. I round the edges, sand with 120 grit on the table, then work up to 300 grit with the palm sander, Smooth as silk!

After this point is personal preference and customization. Corners should be rounded slightly so they aren't sharp, I often sand them and call it good. A router or shaper table could be used to make perfect round edges, or indents for hand holds on the side. Small rubber feet can be screwed into the bottom for stability.

A finish should be applied as the last step. It is the icing on the cake that instantly makes your work look 200% better. A mix of mineral oil and salad bowl oil works best and is a cheap, popular option. Beeswax can be added after for a durable shine, but adds to expense.

I would like to point out that this board was created using wood that was nearly free to me, we will round it up to $1.00 worth. I used a little glue, maybe $1.00. The cost of the mineral oil finish will also be negligible, maybe another dollar. All together I spent 1 hour working on this project, not including glue drying time. Pretty efficient in terms of cost! Not to mention I use typical homeowner tools in this process. Now go to your local flooring mill and ask them about crates of end cuts, see what you get, and hopefully you can create something more amazing than this.