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I started making cutting boards the first of the year, quite by accident. This little venture took on a life of it's own and next thing I knew, I was selling quite a few of them. These are my most popular ones and are roughly 12×16 x 1 1/2".

The first one is your garden variety Wood Whisperer of maple and walnut with a little cherry thrown in to make it interesting (actually this is my most popular design). The second is a more simpler box-joint style with maple and walnut. The third is the design from Wood Magazine using maple, cherry, and jatoba. Each one has 3/4" rubber feet that I get from Lee Valley.

I finish my boards with a mixture of warm mineral oil and melted bees wax.

Gallery

Comments

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Dennis those are beautiful. Great Job!

I saw the wood magazine design when it first came out…"you've done them proud".

Thanks for posting.
 

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Good looking cutting boards! I would like to know what the cutout is for? Thanks for posting these fine boards.

Rick
 

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The cutout is a hand hold. These boards weigh about 6 pounds and even though the rubber feet raise them up slightly, the hand hold makes it easy to get a good grip on it when moving it around.
 

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No words to describe the cutting boards you have made.
Sharad
 

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These are very nice. Glad the jump from corporate desk jockey to Lumberjock was successful for you. Curious about how you sell these? Through stores, ebay? Word of mouth? How much time involved in each one?
Very clever designs.
 

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It acually takes about two days to get to a finished board, but hands on time is only about two hours because most of the process involves waiting on glue to dry. The rest of the working time is sanding. I use a drum sander, flap sander, ROS, etc to speed up the process. It's not cost effective to make one at a time if you are selling them. I usually do ten at a time and can crank out about 20 a week, more if they are the smaller boards.

I have sold some on Etsy, but mostly at fine craft shows and word of mouth through friends. I sold a lot around June to people buying them for wedding gifts. I don't do stores, because wholesale requires you to sell at 50% off list. It doesn't make sense to me. I just started this year, so I am anxious to see what happens leading up to Christmas.
 

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I can see why they are good sellers closetguy. Great job.
 

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These are really beautiful boards : )
Can you tell me at what thickness does a cutting board become a chopping block ? I have always made my "boards" 5/4 inch or less thick , and sold my thicker stuff as "blocks". Seeing as you've been to many shows , have you noticed anything like this ? Also , I finish all of my items with Mineral oil …does the Beeswax make a big difference , because it is quite expensive around here ?.....Thank you : )
 

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Most of my boards are 1.5" thick. A few are 1.25", and I have some all maple at 2" thick. Board, chopping block, they are all the same thing as far as I'm concerned. It just depends on what you want call them.
 

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The boards are nice and I'm glad to see someone else who dropped out of the corporate world to what I call a more satisfying and less stressful world. I am near LaGrange and have not seen any of your type of boards at the local craft shows. Have you tried the Gay GA show?
 

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No, I haven't. By the time I was ready to start doing shows this year, I had missed their deadline.
 
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