Cutting Board & Serving Tray: Curly Maple, Walnut, Pink Lyptus

I made this to be both a cutting board and a serving tray, taking the same care on both sides. The side with my personal brand on it is meant to be the “utilitarian” cutting board side.

Board Details:
Wood Species: curly maple/tiger maple, walnut, pink lyptus
Dimensions: 15-15/16” long, by 10-11/32” wide, by 11/16” thick
Curly Maple: 2-3/4” wide, times 2-pieces
Walnut: 3/32” wide, times 2-pieces (dimensioned on drum sander)
Pink Lyptus: 4-17/32” wide, one piece
Hand-sanded 120-150-220
Finish: 7-coats General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish. The first 4-coats were thinned 50-70% with mineral spirits for better penetration and applied using a rag. The final 3-coats, full-strength, were applied using a sponge brush. (The underside actually only received 6-total coats… 4-thinned coats, then 2-full-strength coats.) After the SBF cured for about a week, I used 0000 steel wool to rub in George’s Club House Wax, followed by hand buffing it out with a clean cloth.

20-Step Board Construction Process:
1. Hand-select wood for grain pattern, orientation, and placement, paying special attention to the centering of the pink lyptus grain.
2. Cut wood to length and width.
3. Glue up wood with Titebond III and plenty of clamps.
4. Scrape glue squeezeout off board.
5. Run board through drum sander to bring all surfaces to same thickness, etc.
6. Crosscut ends to final length.
7. Freehand a 5/32” deep cove on underside with my router.
8. Handsand all surfaces 120-150-220, including slightly rounding over top edges and corners by hand, then apply brand to underside.
9. Vacuum dust off surface, then throughly clean with mineral spirits until paper towel shows no dust.
10. Apply 4-coats of SBF, thinned with mineral spirits 50-70% for deeper penetration, 6-12 hours apart. Final 3-coats of SBF applied 6-12 hours apart, not thinned at all. Final coat of SBF applied to sides and top, not bottom.
11. Let SBF cure for almost a week.
12. Notice some dust and a few cloth fragments embedded in finish.
13. Panic/Swear.
14. Attempt to wetsand marks out using 400-grit wet/dry sandpaper and water.
15. Clean with mineral spirits.
16. Notice it looks better, but not up to my own personal high standards.
17. Panic/Swear.
18. Think about resanding down to bare wood, then starting over, this time with the mineral oil soak, followed by wax/sigh of frustration.
19. Come to senses… is there another way that won’t take so long?
20. Use 0000 steel wool and handrub George’s Club House Wax (blend of mineral oil and beeswax) into board for about 10-minutes, really working it in, followed by 5-10 minutes of hand-buffing out wax with clean cloth. There’s that’s all better! And super-smooth too!

This board is a thank you gift for someone, so I hope they not only enjoy it, but also actually end up using it.

-- Jonathan, Denver, CO "Constructive criticism is welcome and valued as it gives me new perspectives and helps me to advance as a woodworker."