How to Make a Charcuterie Board: Templates, Wood Selection, Finish Options, & More

[Music] thank you [Music] charcuterie boards so charcuterie boards they're just a cutting board with a handle charcuterie is the French term that refers to prepared Meats uh really you know it's a grown-up lunchable and so uh here I mean you can see these pictures here whether it's meats and cheese great options dessert boards super popular for spreads for entertaining all kinds of things a grazing board so lots of options for how to use these they make great gifts they're very popular very high uh selling item but lots of options here when it comes to wood grain so I'm going to explore some of the different wood options some of these species here talking about how to make these boards right that's the whole point of this video as far as templates freehand other options a wood finish some tips tips and tricks I've made well over 50 boards lots of tips I picked up along the way so check it out how to make a charcuterie board all right first up wood selection but before I get into that be sure to use those time stamps down below if you just want to skip around to a specific step uh if a section you don't necessarily need skip around but I do want to talk about wood selection because there's some great pieces here I do have a whole resource here wood 101 link down below uh different types of wood how to learn about wood where to buy the wood where to find it some great options there so be sure to check out that resource but I do recommend a hardwood Walnut is very popular so any kind of Walnut is is a great buy it's the darker wood this particular one is Clara Walnut any wood that has some figurine some some really different colors chatoyance or however you pronounce that word right the different colors really really draws in customers right and it really stands out for for a piece and so you can do that with Walnut it's a little bit pricier even a wood like Cherry you can get some sapwood contrast that's interesting I take a boring piece of cherry and got some interesting pieces here the thing about sapwood usually furniture makers they don't like the sapwood so you can get it you know sapwood hardwood it's usually a little bit more affordable at the lumber yards and add some some great interest I really like that with black walnut this one is Pine I usually recommend just Hardwoods but because you're not really cutting this as long as it's kept well you know with wax and whatnot should be fine but there's a lot of figure and interest some curly figured Maple we've got some sapili mahogany lots of options one option you know that I got here with all this Clara Walnut as I do have some pieces that have the Live Edge so if you have a local Sawmill as long as your wood is dry as long as you're sure that the wood is is nice and dry that's a great option this Live Edge effect is a really cool look I've done that quite a lot the one problem with these is usually there's a lot of work to be done and so shortly I'll show you some steps how to fill voids bug holes and tracks like that because that's a necessary step that you get with any woods but especially if you're finding a local Source or maybe you even Mill up some of your own this is a great project if you you know end up dropping a tree or you have you know this an old this is a plum tree just like a small one that you know over time filled the voids it's an interesting little piece so some really great options here I do recommend the single species you can check and I've I've done some before with multiple species glued up it's a good look like a a laminated cutting board but most of my customers and and myself the look of just a solid wood species is great so lots of options with wood again use those time stamps if necessary but next up how to fill voids so you can get a piece workable like this and Patch any of those holes so the first thing you want to do is you want to make sure if the holes go all the way through that you've marked it off the bottom and so I'm just using some tuck tape some sheathing tape here you have some other options but this just works best and it's often used with epoxy and so I like to use two to one epoxy I use total boat two to one epoxy with the slow hardener it works best for me a lot of other great products out there but this is just one that I've used and you know follow the directions on on the bottles and go ahead and mix it up you can add pigments and kind of mess around with the different colors I usually like to do multiple epoxy pieces at the same time when I mix it up but I can do some black pigment here when in doubt just go clear you know sometimes the color really can mess it up so you don't need to get too cute with it because again the star of the show is the wood grain and so you don't want to lose that but you just got to keep applying it Dental syringes really help sometimes in those tight places depends on on what kind of void you're filling but it can take quite some time as it seeps in lower and lower afterwards you want to use a heat gun you could use a blow torch just to pop those air bubbles as it seeps in and settles over time but pretty straightforward my less than a day but give it some time to fully cure all right as far as the pieces itself you know and cut it to the shape and size you want if you're planning to ship them kind of account for that obviously you got to think about your template we'll get to templates very shortly but here I am just taking some of these bigger slabs and cutting them down I'm using a drum sander here just to smooth it smooth them out before template work just so I have a flat surface you could use a planer for this just be careful with figured woods so you don't have too much chip out but you do want to make it nice and flat you could also just use an orbital sander sometimes you're going to have to come back with some CA glue and just do some more little talk a little bit more about this later all right time to talk templates so to get the look you want right you want to design now you could definitely just take your wood freehand it and then just use a jigsaw or a bandsaw cut it to shape good to go I've done that it totally works but if you have a style you really like and you want to reproduce that I'm making a template or purchasing a template is a great option all of these templates I just hand Drew just messed around with different shapes you know some a wonky looking one here different handle Styles there's so many online fortunately since I started these a couple years ago a lot of others have made templates so you can buy pre-made templates out of MDF usually they're out of MDF or Plexiglas you can find them on Etsy there's some other options I'll try and leave a link to some options down below of where you can find these templates where you get the template you just attach it to your wood kind of trace it out and rough cut it and then use a flush trim bit works really well works great attaching it to the wood some people use double stick tape I just feel like it's a little bit stronger to use CA glue super glue and activator and then you can see there's little bits of the blue tape on here sometimes I forgot to add the blue tape so after a while it kind of got a little a little messy but you can see right here it just kind of matches that template so here are my steps how to attach the templates how to carve it out with the flush trim bit check it out so once you pick your template go ahead and just trace it out here you can see I use the chalk line and then I'm just drilling out the inside hole and I'm just going to do a rough cut with the jigsaw of course you could just cut it all freehand so here you can see you can make quick work of some stock but if you want a really refined look do a rough cut and then we're going to follow with that that template so here I'm using the blue tape this just helps with cleanup later saves me some sanding I'll go in a little Overkill here but it just works for me cleaning it up and then I'm adding CA glue so super glue and then accelerator I'm using starbond here and then just hold it in place just a couple seconds and it's it's rock solid then clean it up with a utility knife just so you don't have the tape gumming up your your bit and then a flush trim router bit so this this bit is amazing it cuts like butter I'll link to this bit and all this stuff down below but at a router table you can really clean it up in no time and this just makes things go really really quickly and just get that uniform repeatable look and here you can see it just pops off pretty easily that blue tape makes it nice and clean and nice and clean with that here are some other ones that I've done in the past where you can see they've all been done with that that router template with the same handle style so it can definitely be done this way okay yes this is a CNC I know a lot of those Woodworkers we love traditional woodworking tools which I do as well but I've recently got a CNC so I wanted to try out as far as efficiency and oh my gosh yes absolutely a CNC can cut out so many more unique profiles so many more things if you're curious and want to learn a little bit more about it I have a couple other videos on it it really is a pretty intuitive tool and I do have some content on that to help with the CNC work but after you've done those void fills after you've done all the work going to do some sanding these Live Edge pieces they usually have they take a lot more love right so oftentimes they have more of those bug tracks because you have some some bark inclusions and other work so you might have to do some more CA glue that you know super glue just to fill those voids the accelerator and just keep keep working at it so that is a step in the process lots of sander options the Live Edge boards having a bench top unit obviously I should have clamped it here as you see it's skating around the workbench is really helpful for just cleaning up the edges maintaining that live Edge I've already filled these boards with epoxy however after surfacing you can see I have some Punky wood here so Punky wood it's really soft and that's just not going to fly for for a board it's just going to absorb everything so the same steps as before but instead I'm using a penetrating epoxy with this obviously you wouldn't do this with a cutting board but once the epoxy is fully cured it is food safe and so this is just going to ensure longevity on the board but here you can see some other pieces some got some more penetrating some got some of that CA glue but throughout the process you'll find some voids that will pop up CA glue is the quickest fix but sometimes epoxy is necessary then you're going to sand it down get it nice and clean once you have your boards nice and clean really important just to get that final profile just so and so one step to get that final profile is that bench top sander again this this particular one is an oscillating belt sander and spindle sander which is really helpful it's certainly not necessary to have this but especially with the handles and some of those you know inside you know whatnot it's helpful to have you want to have that refined final shape before you do any router work for your edge profiles and so having a spindle sander works great there are attachments for drill presses or drills I'll leave a link to those below as well but then adding a round over it just really classes up your board and it just makes it feel so great right in the hand whether it's a subtle you know small round over or a thicker round over just kind of play around with what size works for you but this really does take the board to a new level having a router table like this is super helpful this is just a homemade one I do plan on making a video soon just kind of showing some options with router tables but here you can see the boards so they've been you know kind of rough sanded to 80 grit profiles are done and they're already looking beautiful for sanding I usually like to do 80 grit with a random orbital and then I'll do 120 hand sand 120 random orbital hand sand 150 and then 150 with the random orbital you do have to do hand sanding it doesn't matter how many special tools you have you always want to do some hand sanding just for that shape but after all of the sanding up to 150 grit I like to raise the grain now this is really a necessary step for anything that's going to come in contact with food or a a piece that might get washed When the wood fibers get wet the grain is raised it gets rough to the touch so by getting all of these boards wet the wood fibers raise up and then after it dries right I want it to dry slowly don't don't speed up this process or your board will warp so just a little wet after they dry then I can go back and sand the boards to take care of those wood fibers that have been raised and it's just going to make a smoother board for the end user for for the the customer or the recipient of the gift so make sure you do raise the grain with just a little water and then come back and sand so now I'm hand sanding at 220 grit and then I'll use the random orbital at 220 gray so now it's really smooth and it's ready to go it's ready for finish all right let's talk wood finish so this is a board that's going to come in contact with food and so really you do want a food safe finish technically all finishes if they're fully cured are food safe but I do recommend using something here right one of these options here the go-to for most Woodworkers when it comes to cutting boards is mineral oil right we get a bigger bigger container soak it with mineral oil and then finish up with a wood wax whether you make your own or or you use this this product by walrus oil great great product that's what most Woodworkers do there is a walrus oil makes a cutting board oil that has mineral oil and other waxes built in and then you finish with a wax one other option right is tongue oil so pure tongue oil mix it with a citrus solvent uh walrus oil now actually has their own solvent of food grade these are all food grade materials where you can mix it deeper penetration there's a lot more involved in this I did this on one of my cutting boards uh projects it's just a lot more steps to get that full penetration Furniture oil right Furniture butter tried and true this is let's see what is it it's linseed oil and Beeswax lots of coats lots of coats but this is a good option as well Howards there's other Butcher Block conditioners for this video I'm going to show you just dunking them I I've done all of these I've done some other ones as well my go-to really is mineral oil so I like to just do a really good soak of mineral oil let it dry out and then follow up with wood wax and so here are are my steps and how to do it you can skip around if you need to but wood finish here we go so with a big batch like this it really is helpful to have one of these big plastic totes I can just go ahead and pour the mineral oil over it and just slowly get all the boards in there you just want to make sure that you saturate all of the wood as far as how much oil to do some people love to soak a board overnight and just you know go to town really for me I found that it just needs a quick soak a good soak it doesn't need too much because mineral oil doesn't really dry it doesn't evaporate so whatever you put there it's going to dry a little bit you know I put these out and then overnight they're going to dry a bit the next day but it's going to be oily for a week or two weeks to come so you don't need to go overboard because you're going to follow it with the wax now what I like to do after they're mostly dry I wipe them off and then I sand them at 320 grit so even though I've already raised the grain it's like a bonus raising of the grain with the oil this is just going to make it that much smoother so you can use 320 grit and then lightly with the Sandpaper in the random orbital just very very lightly or you could use like a light scouring pad that works as well then you want to apply your wax so just a light coat of the wax sometimes you might have to do a second coat of the wax if you have the luxury of waiting to see you know how how much it absorbs but you just want to apply the wax everywhere this really provides that great waterproofing finish and it gives a great luster to it after it sat for you know 10-15 minutes or so you just want to wipe off the majority you can just buff it with one of these you know blue shop towels or other units I like to use one of these random orbital buffers it works really well gets it nice and a nice Sheen to to the piece and get it gets it where you want it to go sometimes you will look at him like you know what you'll decide you need to do a second coat I have done that in the past but I always include some wood wax with with my boards for the recipient so they can maintain the board as well but there you go this is a beautiful batch some just gorgeous colors that's all nature right there that's all those natural colors the wood grain so that wood selection really is key make a great choice here's some other boards I've done through the years just some really really fun pieces some unique shapes and just great colors well there you have it how to make a charcuterie board if this video was helpful if it provided value please consider subscribing to to see more videos like this this is usually what I'm making a small projects like this hardwoods for a hobbyist right pretty approachable links to all those videos I mentioned down below the tools All That Jazz you can also check my website or Instagram to see some other styles that I've made through the years but have fun with some Sada some sawdust Shenanigans and we'll catch you next time take care

Channel: Six Eight Woodworks

Views: 270,436

Keywords: how to make a charcuterie board, charcuterie board, charcuterie boards, cutting board, serving board, charcuterie board diy, how to make a charcuterie board food safe, how to make a charcuterie board diy, charcuterie board handles, charcuterie board handle template, router template, router template guide how to use, router template guide, router template cutting, charcuterie board diy wood, wood charcuterie board, wooden charcuterie board, wooden serving tray

Id: 6eVfzlA-V6c

Length: 17min 34sec (1054 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 11 2022