How I Make Hardwood Cutting Boards

In this video I show how to make hardwood edge grain cutting boards from walnut, cherry and hard maple. I made a batch of these in my workshop for gifts and I think they turned out very nice!

I wanted to make something that would be both beautiful and practical to gift to my close family members. The idea for cutting boards came from my wife, as her grandfather was in desperate need of a new one and she suggested I make one for him. I had never made a cutting board before, but jumped in head first. After researching what types of wood are appropriate for use as a cutting surface (general rule for acceptable wood species is hardwood species that produce an edible product like walnut, cherry, or maple), I selected several 10’ boards of walnut, cherry and hard maple from my local lumber yard and went to work.

From there I decided that all the cutting boards would be approximately 16” long and 12” wide. The width is currently dictated by the width of my wood planer. In the future I may try to upgrade the width capacity with other techniques.

I set to work cutting to length all the pieces of walnut, cherry and hard maple. I then ran each piece through the joiner to get a flat side and face. With two flat sides I used the table saw to rip the boards into different thickness coming up with a good-looking design for the boards.

Once the design was roughed out, and the pieces laid out, I glued them all together and clamped them over night. Once the glue was dry, I removed the boards from the clamps and ran each board through the planer. This gives both sides of the board a parallel and flat surface which I could sand to the final finish.

I sanded each board from 120 grit up to 320 grit, using a wet and sand technique in between coarseness changes to allow for the raised grain to be sanded smooth. This will prevent the cutting board grain from raising the first time the boards are rinsed or washed.

After I was happy with the sanding, I applied a coat of FDA approved food safe oil and then wax. The result is a cutting board that I think looks great and will last for years in the kitchen.