Rock Maple Cutting Board

[Andre]

One of my more recent projects, a rock (sugar) Maple cutting board. Milled from trees fallen in my woods. The sawmill was the last power tool to touch any of the wood used in this cutting board. Made with hand saws, an axe, chisel, No3 and a No5 plane, and a block plane. Titebond II glue and several coats of butcher block laquer/varnish.

 

[rgray]

Very nice. Always liked the looks of maple

 

[middle.road]

OK, I count (8) boards, and my shoulders are aching thinking about planing all that down... Wow.
Now, who is going to make the first cut on it in the kitchen?
I would probably mess up the 3rd board and then run 'em all through the planer.
My planes haven't moved off the shelf since we moved in (3) years ago.
I would love to find the time to pudder with them and tune them up, then try to make something.

 

[Andre]

It hasn't been used yet, but I will probably make the first cut followed by an hour of crying

Paul Sellers has great videos on hand plane sharpening and how to set one up properly. The biggest tip for me was using beeswax on the plane sole, it reduced friction immensely. For that cutting board I probably touched up the three plane blades around ten times total.