Cool Maple Charcuterie Board

 I picked up some maple for shelves, and part of the leftover board had some really cool disfiguring and burl work going on, so I decided to make a serving board out of it. I think the shape is roughly like a tomahawk steak, and it's huge (around 28" x 14" wide) so this would be a great way to serve up some cool food. 

I've got a craigslist ad and facebook marketplace out right now, it's for sale for $100. Contact me (comment on the blog) if you want it.

Cool live edge detail

Couple of boards

I picked up a cool piece of maple and cut a charcuterie board out of it. Kelley ended up liking it so much that I can't sell it, it did turn out really cool. After I grabbed the pictures, I added a hole in the handle and a leather strap through it.

Also, my brother Michael wanted me to make something for him to give his wife for Christmas, so of course I was happy to jump on board. I picked up some walnut at the same time I got that maple, sized a chunk out of that and had it engraved. Michael said he wanted a more formal approach to the sign. I had to size the sign (turns out I made it too tall), routed a roundover edge on the table, then after it was engraved added spraypaint to color fill the lettering and put a finish on it. I tried a new finish I heard recommended on a podcast and really like it. Old Masters makes something called Masters Armor, which dries really fast (about 30 minutes) and continues to harden for 24 hours. Pretty neat stuff, I also used it on a bed later.

Picked up some Maple, cherry, and walnut (L-R)

Cut this out of the maple board

That grain pattern is really cool

Michael's sign

There's my brother (right)! I went to visit him for a bit

One of my fraternity brothers sent us some meats & cheese as a thank you for something we did to help his son. The board has a live edge on 2 sides with bark, and I cut a gentle curve on the wide side and a handle on the other side with a jigsaw tilted to about a 10* angle. The board came already planed pretty smooth, but I still had to do plenty of sanding. Then I put on 3 coats of tung oil and 3 coats of butcher block conditioner (wax + oil) to finish it off. All food safe.

Charcuterie Board 1

I had some scrap pieces leftover hanging out around the shop and I had a bit of free time, so I figured I would put together something for the etsy shop. This is made of cherry and walnut. I had some cherry that was long enough to cut in half. Then I found a few narrow cutoffs of walnut to provide some color contrast. I think the end result is pretty cool

Rough cut/glue up

the bottom

Tried to cut a rabbet into the edge - didn't go so well

I needed some weight to attach those risers

I started out by making the cherry pieces exactly the same. Have to be a mirror image for this setup to work. I used a can of spraypaint to get the curve marked for the corners and cut them out on the bandsaw. Then setup a rabbet bit in the router table for exactly half of the thickness of both pieces. Of course they weren't exactly the same thickness, but it wasn't off by more than a millimeter or so. When you route out half of the thickness of the outside pieces and take the same rabbet depth on each side of the middle piece the top has to be flush. it's math. Also, I used a small radius roundover bit to put an edge on the top.

Plus adding the rabbets gives you a ton of glue surface. I also sanded some walnut risers to get the board off of the counter a bit. If you have a level countertop and the risers are the same thickness then you will end up with a level board that is easy to pick up! I also routed the rabbet over the ends - there was some damage to the bottom of the boards that I needed to hide so putting that lip on the ends cleaned it up nicely. I had to use a fence on the router table to keep the rabbet even.

Starting to finish

So this guy is up for sale on the Etsy store. I looked through the first 20 pages of listings and couldn't find my own product, this category is pretty competitive. I finished the board with food safe finishes, again going through the entire rotation of sanding grits (80, 120, 180, 220, 320) before putting 5 coats of tung oil on the bottom, and 4 coats on the top followed by 3 coats of butcher block conditioning wax + oil. The finish is food safe, cherry isn't particularly hard but you can use a knife on this board. More than likely the purchaser (or gift recipient or my wife) will just use it as a serving tray. Load this bad boy up with meats & cheeses, or fruit, or even sushi.

This was a really fun project. It only took a few hours to pull the woodworking together, and longer for the finish to cure. I'm really looking forward to playing around more with edge joinery and making some more of these type of boards.