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Finally got this finished to my liking. I was having trouble getting the finish to a high luster without issues. This was a gift for my parents.

Wood: Birdseye Maple, hand-selected 1-board then cut it into 4-pieces and arranged until my eye was happy with the layout
Finish: General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish (lots of thinned coats), followed by Howard Butcher Block Conditioner (a combination of mineral oil beeswax and carnauba wax) application and buffing
Sanding: hand-sanded up through 2000-grit before applying finish, then sanded the finish from 400-2000 grit, with the last few grits were wet-sanded with mineral oil before cleaning it off and waxing, then rebuffing.
Edges: Roundover bit used for finger hold, all edges tapered by hand
Dimensions: 14-3/16" x 12-1/16" x 7/16" -OR- 361mm x 306mm x 11mm
Weight: 26.4-ounces, or 748-grams

Gallery

Comments

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That is lovely with the tapered edges, and you did a fine job on the careful application of a finish. Beautiful work!
 

· In Loving Memory
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Nice work Jonathan. I like the tactile look and the woodgrain. Did you advise your parents to cut only on one side to preserve one 'nice' side?
 

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Thank you Barb, I appreciate it!

Here's a link to the process and progress of this tray along the way. Just got around to taking pictures of it yesterday after finally getting the finish the way I wanted it.
 

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Thanks Mike! I don't believe they will actually be cutting on it but rather, using it as a serving tray for vegetables, cheeses, etc. If they're going to be using a cheese knife, I'm advising them to use the back side, with the brand on it.
 

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Beautiful board nice job.
 

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Nice job Jonathan! Your persistence on the finish and grain matching paid off. I really like the lines and curves of the design. I'm sure your parents are going to love it.

Thanks for posting,
 

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General Finishes Salad Bowl Finish (lots of thinned coats)
This product is already 60% Mineral Spirits , so diluting it further left very little of the solids to build up for you, or at least impeded your finish time.(In other words , you waited for your money to evaporate.)
The Howard's product (Mineral Oil) is meant to penetrate the wood fibers and soak into them (but was being blocked by the GFSBF resin layer), and the waxes form a nice sheen and a little protection on top of the wood.
You might have had better / quicker results using one or the other, and then just buffing in the end.
Also , over sanding leaves nothing for finishes to hold on to , as it burnishes the wood.
Ask me how I know that one ! LOL

Your board is a beautiful gift and I'm sure your parents will love it : )
Keep up the nice work !
 

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I love the wood and the shape of the piece. Super nice.
 

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Jim, Cal, and Pete, thank you all for the kind words.

Dusty, I know, I know… I just couldn't resist taking it up to 2000-grit because I wanted to see what it looked like without the finish. I should've knocked it back to 320-grit (or so) before applying the SBF. And it was only the first few coats that I thinned, which I didn't mention. With each progressive coat, I used less mineral spirits. I wanted it to penetrate as deeply as possible (which as you pointed out, I pretty much shot myself in the foot by sanding up so high). And the real reason for so many coats was because I had to go back and sand out some air bubbles from one of the coats. I pretty much buffed all the wax off anyway. I simply used it to fill in any minor (beyond 2000-grit) scratches. I wasn't intending for the mineral oil within the Howard product to anything, it was more the beeswax and carnauba wax that I wanted. All good advice though from you, and it's appreciated.
 

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I'm happy that you took my comment as I intended it to be : )
I also used to sand a lot of items to the finest grit I could find , which was also 2K at the time.
Now I know that those superfine grits are for "finishing" the finish , not starting out with.
I also reread TWW's finishing technique regarding his dilution of the SBF , and it was strictly for use on End Grain boards(open pores) and not to "build a finish" with.It was meant to soak into and fill the pores, preventing water absorption and preventing the finish from chipping off when cut upon, as opposed to encasing it in a hard shell.
Happy Easter to you and yours , Jonathan : )
 

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Sweet looking finish. Great work.
 

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Thanks Jack! It's not perfect, but I'm probably the only one that'll notice.
 

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I love the shape! The finish shows in your pictures, it was worth the time end effort.
 

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Thank you. I was going for an organic shape, with the rounded, soft edges and tapers all over.
 

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Nicely done, those tapered edges really make it stand out. Love the birdseye maple.
 

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Thank you Jonathan for this unique and personal gift-The craftsmanship and birdseye maple make this an outstanding seriving piece to treasure. We love it!
 
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