In From The Wood Pile to The Kitchen, How a Cutting Board is Made (Part I), I left off with the cutting board having been cut, glued, shaped, and reinforced with dowels. Here we will focus on refining the cutting board to a finished, usable product.

1) Adding A Special Touch

On this cutting board, I added 1″ oak dowels in a diamond configuration for decoration. Using a Forstner Bit, I drilled the holes according to my marks, and glued the dowels in place over night. Forstner bits tend to yield a very clean hole, and are nice to use for spots where one needs a tight fit.

The cutting board has 1″ holes drilled, and is ready for dowel placement.

The dowels have been cut and glued into the appropriately marked holes.

2) Sanding and Shaping

I use a 5″ Disc Sander for the initial shaping and finishing of the board. I start with rough sanding discs and work my way to finer sanding discs. Once the general shape has been achieved, I will sand out the larger sanding marks with a 5″ Random Orbital Sander. The basic idea behind sanding is to make finer and finer scratches on the surface with an abrasive material. Once I have reached a point where the surface is smooth from the electric sanders, I sand the cutting board by hand.

The cutting board has been sanded with the disc sander, and is now ready for the random orbital sander.

Using a vice clamp to hold the cutting board in place makes sanding the cutting board easier.

This is a close up of the random orbital sander in action.

When sanding by hand, I like to start with medium grit, and move to a finer grit sandpaper, until the cutting board is extremely smooth. (the spots on the cutting board are from rain, for I work outside)

3) Finishing

Once the cutting board has been completely sanded, it is ready for a protective finish. I like to finish my cutting boards using Walnut Oil and Beeswax . Walnut oil is wonderful to use due to it’s low rancidity, and the ability to penetrate deep into the wood. I use two coats of walnut oil, and one final coat of a mixture of walnut oil and beeswax. Between the two coats of walnut oil, I sand the cutting board with very fine sandpaper, as the oil tends to raise the wood grain. The beeswax seals any remaining hairline cracks or gaps, and acts like an overall attractive smelling, protective coating.

Heating the walnut oil allows it soak into the wood more effectively.

The beeswax must be melted in with the walnut oil for the final finishing coat.

The cutting board is finished and ready for use.

This is a close-up shot of a knot that brings out the character of the wood.

The cutting board is now finished and ready to be used for the preparation of many delightful meals. But there are steps one can take to care for a cutting board and lengthen it’s life. Please read my post on cutting board care that should be up in a few days. Happy cutting!