How to Make a Cutting Board

Even if you are a busy person who cooks occasionally, you need all the essential cooking utensils and tools in your kitchen. For making a meal, you not only need to stock up on fresh produce and pantry supplies, but also need to have the kitchen tools that are required for cooking.

One such must-have kitchen tool is a cutting board or chopping board. You need a cutting board to chop fresh fruits, vegetables, cheese, meat and poultry. Ideally, you should have two cutting boards, one for slicing fruits and vegetables and another for meat and poultry to avoid risk of cross contamination.

Cutting boards are available in a variety of designs and materials from wood, marble and plastic to bamboo and glass. In spite of the convenience of plastic cutting boards, it is bamboo cutting boards that is more favored by people because it is eco friendly and functional.

Although you can find many styles and designs of cutting board in your local supermarket, you can make one of your own. It is quite a simple and straightforward project and all you need are a few essential supplies to make it. Here we are going to give you instructions on how to make a cutting board.

Things required

• Piece of maple wood (1 inch in thickness)
• Saw
• Fine grit sandpaper
• Tape measure
• Pen
• Clamps
• Walnut oil
• Steel wool
• Trim router

Procedure
To make this wood cutting board a little fancier, you can choose to have a fancy shape instead of having a regular rectangular shape. An apple shaped or a spade shaped cutting board is simple to carve out. First draw the design of your choice on a piece of graph paper to measure about 20 inches in length and 12 inches in width. This is the same dimension as that of the maple wood that you are going to construct the cutting board with.

Once you are happy with the design, cut around the outline of the design with a pair of sharp scissors. Transfer the design on the piece of maple wood by placing the pattern over the wood and tracing the outline with a pen. If you are a novice at woodworking, it is best that you start with a simple pattern like a pear or apple.

Next clamp the piece of wood over the workbench so that one of the edges of the wood piece is hanging out. Cut out the outline of the design on the wood with a saber saw. Repeat this procedure on the other sides, until you have cut out the outline of the pattern. Once you have the wood piece with the required pattern carved out, smooth the jagged edges of the cutting board with a fine grit sandpaper. Makes sure that you do not skip this step as smoothing the edges will help in giving a smooth finish.

To make a juice groove to hold the juices of vegetables and fruits while cutting, you need to mark an outline along the perimeter of the cutting board that is about ½ inch from the edge. Carve out the juice groove by using a trim router attached with a cutting bit. To smooth out the juice groove that you have just carved, attach a round-over bit on the trim router and sand it over the juice groove.

Go over the entire cutting board with a fine grit sandpaper to give the board a smooth finish. Pour out about 6 tablespoons of walnut oil in a small bowl. Dip a brush into the walnut oil and apply it over the maple cutting board. Make sure that you coat the cutting board with walnut oil thoroughly, not missing any grooves and corners.

Once the oil dries over the board, scrub it gently with steel wool. Apply another coat of walnut oil and scrub again with the steel wool. Repeat this procedure one more time and allow the oil to dry completely. Leave the cutting board to season for a few days before using it in your kitchen.

As you can see, making a cutting board is not a difficult task at all. With the right supplies you can make a wooden cutting board in different patterns to use in your kitchen. These cutting boards can be used for food presentation as well.