How To Make A Cutting Board

To fabricate a cutting board, you will need the following tools.

• A ruler, a combination square is preferred;
• A simple pencil, soft or hard;
• A mathematical compass or a ruler with ready- made holes;
• A saw or rather a fret-saw;
• A grinder or a set of sandpapers of different abrasive grit, from 60 to 220;
• A grinding sponge for finish treatment.

Preparation Of Material For A Cutting Board

Start with the preparation of necessary material, this time the wood is singled out for it. This is a classical type of material, because it is simple in treatment, does not damage nor blunts knives and is fairly strong in the base. There are options of use of a glass, plastic or metal, but it is possible at some next lessons.

Well, we need a simple wood board, one can probably find it in any household. If you live in an apartment and you do not have any staff at hand, try to get off to the nearest building site. A couple of pieces of wood is always left there after repair and construction works.

Proportions And Construction Of The Cutting Board

It is recommended to use the following proportions, the thickness of the workpiece must be 20-40 mm, the width: 200-300 mm, and the length: 400-600 mm. After preparation of material for the workpiece, draw a future form. The construction will be rectangular with rounded angles. It is the simplest option, but it is the easiest and the most ideal one. Take the combination square and check our board for presence of case-hardenings and slopes. From one of long sides in length, draw the even flat, relatively to which all other measurements will be taken.

Having made a flat rectangle, make roundness on edges with the radius of 30-50mm. In order to create the even pattern of the curved line, use the compass or the ruler with ready-made holes, let`s recall school lessons of draftsmanship. The angle should not be sharp and too rounded at the same time. If you want, you can draw a more complex workpiece, for example, an oval or another shape.

Wood Cutting And Grinding

Well, the drawing is ready and now you need to cut off everything extra. To do this, use a saw with little teeth or a fret-saw with a file for curvilinear cutting. Do not forget about precaution measures, use gloves and safety goggles while work with the tool. Carefully saw out angles and extra elements according to the applied pencil drawing.

The cutting board has already become a bit similar to a good-looking workpiece. But how one can make it smoother without splinters and sawdust. To do this, grind each angle and all the sides of the wood. Use a grinder for it, but, in the absence of this power tool, one can use a plain sandpaper.

Start with choosing a sandpaper with greater abrasive grit, it must be of 60-80. It should be done first to remove big and convex spots on wood, especially, if it has a complex texture. Afterwards, take the sandpaper of the 120 and 220. Carefully grind each side, do not hurry and be extremely focused on implementation of the work.

Thus, you get a sanded up cutting wood board, which one can show to a wife without any shame. Now it is the time to make it slipperier and without small roughnesses. To do this, take an abrasive grinding sponge for wood, which one can find in any tool shop. And treat all the surface of the cutting board, as it was done with help of sandpaper.

Concluding Part

Well, the cutting board is fabricated, it remained only to clean it from fine wood dust. One can do it with a brush or a moist rag. It is also recommended to rub the board with mineral oil. It will give a small layer of a defense for wood and prevent strong cuts from a knife. Now you know how to fabricate a handmade cutting board from wood and can get to more complex workpieces.