{"id":11556,"date":"2018-12-10T14:15:52","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T21:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woodworkerssource.com\/blog\/?p=11556"},"modified":"2018-12-17T10:07:24","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T17:07:24","slug":"4-simple-tricks-for-an-eye-catching-wood-cutting-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woodworkerssource.com\/blog\/woodworking-projects\/4-simple-tricks-for-an-eye-catching-wood-cutting-board\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Simple Tricks for an Eye-Catching Wood Cutting Board"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"walnut<\/p>\n

When the holiday season comes around, to no surprise, woodworkers turn to wood cutting boards as a go to gift for friends and family. A wood cutting board is easy to knock out over the weekend while providing a blank canvas for a woodworking artistic expression. <\/span><\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re a seasoned woodworking pro, or new to the maker\u2019s culture we all could use a little inspiration for our next cutting board project. Sure, the classic maple cutting board we all made in shop is nice, but why not add a little pizzazz?<\/span><\/p>\n

Without further ado, here are my 4 favorite tricks for making your cutting board more interesting and one-of-a-kind:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Choose an Unusual Pattern<\/strong><\/h1>\n

This may be the easiest or hardest trick depending on your design palette and ambition! <\/span><\/p>\n

Contrasting color is as important to art as it is a cutting board. Figuring out your style, and more importantly the style of your cutting board recipient will direct your design. Put it this way, do you like stark contrast, or favor blending complementary colors? <\/span><\/p>\n

For the former, think about a dark hardwood like walnut (or <\/span>wenge<\/span><\/a>) with nearly white maple to create a black\/white relationship. Whereas in a maple cutting board, adding mahogany or cherry will make the maple darken as a complementary color. <\/span><\/p>\n

Once you know your color pallette, choose an interesting pattern! Such as a 3D end grain (<\/span>plan<\/span><\/a>), racing stripe (<\/span>plan<\/span><\/a>) or brick pattern (<\/span>plan<\/span><\/a>). <\/span><\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n

2. Add an Accent<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Another way to mix things up: add a thin contrasting strip for a small pop of color. We do this in our <\/span>cutting board kits<\/span><\/a> by providing one board of a contrasting color to provide a visual boost! <\/span><\/p>\n

If your cutting board is heavy on lighter woods, add a dark wood like walnut, or granadillo. Building a walnut cutting board and want to lighten it up? Try a piece of white limba or maple to stand out. <\/span><\/p>\n

Bonus: It\u2019s never a bad idea to add purple heart for the eye catching purple color or a colorful bit of canarywood. <\/span><\/p>\n

3. Build a Unique Shape<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Who says a cutting board needs to be a rectangle? At Woodworkers Source, we like to add an interesting shape on 1 side. Check out these 2 cutting boards above.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the first cutting board, all that was needed, were two 45* cuts to create a parallelogram pattern. And on the second, we made a broad curve template to cut out on one side.<\/span><\/p>\n

Want to add a little function to your design? Try cutting a parallelogram vertically to create an artistic lip to your cutting board. By doing this, you\u2019ll never need move your cutting board to the edge of the counter to scrape the food you\u2019ve cut.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"beveled<\/p>\n

4. Add a Handle<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

I have 2 primary reasons for adding a handle.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A handle provides convenience for moving and cleaning. <\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Your cutting board can become wall art. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"mahogany<\/p>\n

    Hear me out, nearly half the time I make a cutting board, I inevitably give it to the recipient and hear, \u201cOh this is too pretty to use.\u201d To that, I first say, \u201cIt\u2019s too pretty <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> to be used!\u201d… But, as a fall back, a handle does allow the recipient to hang it on the wall so they can tell all their friends about my master woodworking (humbly of course). <\/span><\/p>\n

    In all seriousness, a handle is great for dealing with a cutting board. Whether you rout in a hidden grip on the sides or cut out a handle, Everyone appreciates having a handle to easily move their heavy duty good looking cutting board. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Bonus: Rout a Drip Well<\/strong><\/h1>\n

    \"cutting<\/p>\n

    Okay, admittedly a drip well isn\u2019t going to WOW the recipient of your stunning looking cutting board. But, on the other hand they will really appreciate your thoughtfulness when the drippings of a steak or thanksgiving turkey are contained and not running all over the counter!<\/span><\/p>\n

    A drip well is super easy to add using a handheld router. Get yourself a round nose bit of your desired width (we use \u00bd\u201d), then make yourself a template and use a guide for a precise cut. On our cutting boards we make a template about 1\u201d smaller than the cutting board in each direction to leave \u00bc\u201d outside of the well. Just remember, different router bits and guides will change how much space yo<\/span><\/p>\n

    Now Get to Designing!<\/strong><\/h1>\n

    Time to get cracking at designing your cutting board. We\u2019ve got you covered with a couple cutting board kits (<\/span>here<\/span><\/a>\u2019s my favorite), along with 1-\u00be\u201d square cutting board strips <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>. And if you have any other tricks you love, share them below in the comments.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    When the holiday season comes around, to no surprise, woodworkers turn to wood cutting boards as a go to gift for friends and family. A wood cutting board is easy to knock out over the weekend while providing a blank canvas for a woodworking artistic expression. Whether you\u2019re a seasoned woodworking pro, or new to …
    Read More<\/strong><\/em> <\/i><\/small><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":11601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,83,4],"tags":[24,313,67,80,314,315,316,73,76],"class_list":["post-11556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips-tricks","category-woodworking-101","category-woodworking-projects","tag-custom-woodworking","tag-cutting-board","tag-help","tag-mahogany","tag-maple","tag-oak","tag-purple-heart","tag-tips","tag-walnut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woodworkerssource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woodworkerssource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woodworkerssource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodworkerssource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodworkerssource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11556"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodworkerssource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11616,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodworkerssource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11556\/revisions\/11616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodworkerssource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woodworkerssource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodworkerssource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodworkerssource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}