5 Pro Tips for Great Cutting Boards

what's up everybody i am matt from mwa Woodworks and in this video i'm gonna show you how to make this sweet cutting board i'll take you step-by-step through how to make one of these beauties and along the way i'm gonna show you five tips that every cutting board maker needs to know let's get started I definitely recommend hardwoods for cutting boards woods like maple cherry and walnut are all excellent options and you can even add exotic tropical hardwoods like Purple Heart yellow heart Orpah doog to give your boards an extra pop of color now a great place to raid for materials is the offcut then and that brings us to tip number one that every cutting board maker should know always save off cuts from your projects if they're long enough to use and other small projects like this one I often find enough material for the accent woods by using these strips I even made this handy ruler on the side of my outfeed table to make sure that the strips are long enough to work in the project that I'm making and in this case I found two strips of this sweet looking aged cherry wood I also found this larger off cut of hard maple that I'll cut to size and I'll cut it up into some thin strips later now the main body of this cutting board will be made of walnut I have a nice wide 8 quarter walnut board that I'll be using I like using a white marker to strike a line on walnut as it's very easy to see where I need to cut and I'm careful how I cut this rough lumber because any gaps that exist between the lumber and the fence can cause pinching of the blade that can result in kickback my preferred method is to make multiple passes and complete the cut on the inside first and then finish with the outside cut as that cut tends to be more straight down than back towards the fence and once I have my walnut cut I have all the rough parts for my board now it's time to mill up this rough walnut by first flattening one face and squaring up one side of the jointer the next step is to flatten the other side by placing my flat side face down and running my walnut through the planer now I have three sides surfaced and flat in one edge squared then I take my board to the table saw and put the squared edge against the fence and cut the fourth side squared or nearly square if you look here this joint is gappy and needs to be cleaned up because this has the chance to fail over time and that leads us to tip number two that every cutting board maker should know the best trick I know to clean up this joint is to fold the two sides like a book and then run them both across the jointer at the same time even if your joiners fence is it perfectly square you'll be creating complementary angles that match one another perfectly and once you unfold your halves you have a perfect seamless joint now to make room for the accent strips I'm cutting about an inch off of one end of the walnut and then follow that with a quarter inch strip now I need to make two more of these strips so I just took the previous trip and move the fence until the board was flush with the edge to make a duplicate strip here that is again I just placed one strip against the blade and move the fence until the board was flush now I have all my walnut parts cut but I still have to cut the accent strips so I was pretty lucky that the cherry strips were already surfaced and squared but I still need to make two quarter inch strips of the hard maple and I used the same technique as before to make these and now that I have all my parts cut I can arrange them how I like to get a preview of the final product man that cherry has such a sweet color so to glue up my board I'm using Titebond 3 which is suitable for applications where water will come in contact with the finished product although I have used Titebond 2 in plenty of cutting boards and never had any issues so I wouldn't be too worried if you don't have Titebond 3 or a similar product on hand also a foam brush works really well in this situation they're cheap and disposable now once everything is lined up and in place I just apply pressure with the clamps I'm getting a nice glue bead at every joint so I know that I'm getting good even pressure after about 30 minutes the glue is skinned over and I use a scraper to easily clean the board and that's tip number three that every cutting board maker should know waiting until the glue is skinned over makes it super easy to clean up which makes your life that much easier now once the glue is dried it's time to pull the board out of the clamps and clean off any remaining dried glue that got left behind this is a critical step in the process because it directly affects the flatness of your final product okay now over at the planer make sure you take the side that you cleaned up and have it face down and take a light pass then flip the board and repeat keep doing this until both sides of the board are completely cleaned up the emphasis here is on taking as light a pass as possible to preserve as much material as you can while you're flattening the board okay now to clean up the ends of the board I use my crosscut sled and place one straight edge up against the fence I cut the first edge off then flip the board making sure to keep the same long side against the fence this guarantees that the two ends of the board are perfectly square to that one long edge the last thing I do is place my workpiece on the flat cast iron surface if my table saw to check for flatness and also make sure all four edges are square the next step in the process won't go as well unless the board is square on all four sides now for this type of board I like to bevel the underside because I think it gives it a lighter look and it also gives you a place to pick up the board on all four sides and to make this cut I set my table saw blade to 45 degrees now I use a straight edge against the blade to visualize where the placement of the bevel will look best to my eye and then make the cut I then flip the board around and make the same cut on the opposite side now matching up the ends to the sides takes a bit of time I slowly make probing cuts to sneak up on the distance where the two bevels meet perfectly at appointment I know I'm there when the clouds part and the angels sing' then I just flip it over to the other edge and make the same time if everything goes right it should look like this all right guys now we're in the homestretch and it's time to finish this thing off I sand my boards with 120 180 and 220 grit sandpaper until it's buttery smooth now here's tip number 4 that every cutting board makers should know before sanding with each grit just mark the bore with a pencil like this and sand until the pencil lines are gone and then move on to the next grit you'll notice that the sanding takes longer with the first grit but with each successive grit the pencil lines disappear faster and faster now I'm careful when sanding the bevels in the edge of the board to make sure that I maintain those nice angle lines that I create I don't want to round those over now for the next step I reach for my block plane I find that taking down the sharp edge around the top of the board this way will reduce chip out that can happen with a router there's nothing like getting all the way to this point in the project and having a router bit tear a huge chunk right off the top edge of your beautiful work oh and it's also faster and I love making curly shavings I also remember to get the little corners on the sides - those can be sharp now sometimes they get a little fuzziness around the edge of the end grain and so to deal with this I just wrapped a piece of sandpaper in a block of wood and that helps me sand it without rounding over my clean edges the next step is tip number five that every cutting board maker should know I give the board a quick spritz with a spray bottle of water this will raise the grain of the wood and make it feel rough and unsanded again that's because all the little broken fibres of wood you created during the sanding are now standing up on an end sort of like the hair on your arms when you're cold now once you get the surface of the board wet just let it sit for a little while to dry then you can hit it with 220 grit sandpaper again and it's back to smooth and the good news is that once you do this the fuzziness won't come back the first time you clean the board with water now comes my favorite part of the whole process i liberally apply a paste made of mineral oil and beeswax that I made and watch the grain come alive there's nothing like that big reveal now I just let it sit overnight to allow the board to soak in the mineral oil and leave the wax to solidify on the surface the next day I use a clean cotton rag to buff the wax to a buttery smooth finish then I never get tired of that last step seeing that walnut grain come to life is just such an amazing process so if you liked this video please hit that like button and leave a comment below to let me know what you thought also be sure to hit that logo button to subscribe to my channel and hit the bell icon to be notified of future videos speaking of videos I've got a couple other ones lined up here that I think you're gonna like as well so make sure to check those out and until next time have fun in the shop

Channel: MWA Woodworks

Views: 926,756

Rating: 4.9542723 out of 5

Keywords: mwa woodworks, 5 tips for great cutting boards, 5 must know cutting board tips, wood cutting board diy, cutting board tips and tricks, diy wooden cutting board, diy gifts made from wood, christmas gifts made from wood, simple gifts made from wood, cutting board gift ideas, diy wooden gifts, how to make a cutting board, maple and walnut cutting board, walnut and maple cutting board, best wood for cutting boards, best cutting board finish, top cutting boards, cutting board gifts

Id: TeC9KP9_7w8

Length: 9min 3sec (543 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 02 2019