Cutting The Cutting Boards

Ten years ago my Dad started woodworking as a hobby.  One of the first things that was suggested for him to build was cutting boards.  So he glued up a number of butcher block cutting boards.  He finished a number of them.  We use three of them in the house to this day.  Many more were given to relatives for presents.  However, there were still two that he never finished.

He put them away, and never got back around to them due to other projects.  Not to mention they were tucked away behind other equipment and wood.  I was cleaning out the garage when I came across the two unfinished boards.  It was then that I decided to finish the projects.

First up, this is what I was working with.

It was then that I found out why these were never finished.  I was thinking of planing the boards through my thickness planer.  However, I once I learned that they were constructed end grain up I thought better of it.  With the end grain sticking straight up a planer would chip it up in no time.

So I aimed to run it through my thickness sander.  That's when I discovered that the thickness planer needed some work.  Again, that's one reason the boards had been sitting for a while.  Without a thickness planer it would have to be sanded by hand.  Luckily, I had my mind set out to finish this, so it was onto work.

Luckily, I didn't have to sand  it all by hand.  I had the help of my belt sander and my random orbital sander.  So, I'll make a long story short.  There was a lot of sanding involved.  I started at 36 grit on my random orbital sander and 40 grit on my belt sander.  After that I sanded all the way up to 400 grit.

Here's what it looked like after all the sanding.

Pretty sweet right?  Dad did a good job putting these together.  The are made of maple, black walnut, and cherry.  So now the next part was to put the first coats of sealer on them.  I've been using a tung oil plus catalyst mix for my latest projects.  I love it since it's idiot proof.  Even I can't screw it up and that's saying something.  So here's a photo of the boards after one coat of the tung oil mix.

After this I will start applying butcher's block wax.  Once a few coats are added they will be ready to go.  The good news, is that, I already have a buyer interested in them. 

I have to say, I am extremely happy with the way things turned out.  I was also able to finish another project.  I have plenty of projects started, it's just finishing them that seems to be the problem.  So to cross one off my list feels good.