A Creative Use for Scrap Wood

Making a Custom Hardwood Cutting Board – Part 1

After my annual fall shop cleanup I’m often left with a pile of scrap wood from various furniture projects I’ve completed throughout the year. Mostly cutoffs and short planks, they’re really not useful for much -- a guy can only use so many clamping blocks and push sticks -- but I always feel bad about consigning premium hardwood to the burn pile.

A few years ago I came up with a simple cutting board project that makes full use of scraps and looks way more impressive than the few hours it takes to complete. It also makes a great gift and as word has spread, I now make it a part of my year-end holiday tradition for an expanding group of friends and family. All you need is a table saw, a hand-plane and a couple of spare hours on any given Saturday afternoon (although a power thickness planer will speed production and router will allow you to apply a few more decorative flourishes). Here’s how to do it:

First, assemble your scraps. Anything at least 1-inch wide and 10-inches or more in length will do. Short 18 to 24-inch planks are ideal. I typically use good old American maple, cherry, and walnut for my projects throughout the year which makes an ideal color contrast for the resulting cutting board, but any non-porous hardwood will work. I’d exclude pine or poplar as too soft. I’d also steer clear of red oak or mahogany with their open pores. Otherwise, pretty much anything goes and I’ve had good luck with the occasional African exotics as well as white oak and beech.

Next, set your table saw to the starting THICKNESS you want the cutting board to be plus about ¼-inch to allow for final surfacing. We’ll be turning the slats on their sides and face-gluing them up into a laminated board so don’t worry about saw marks. For a full-sized cutting board, I usually rip to 1-1/4” which is eventually planed down to 1-inch after glue-up. For a small cheeseboard, you can go ¾” and plane down to ½” for the final product.

Now just rip away through all of your scrap and you should have a pile of same-width slats of different lengths – the more the better at this stage.

I find it handy to next crosscut cut the slats to rough dimensions of the final product. The final length of the wood is usually determined by the shortest straw in the pile. For a full-sized cutting board, 12 x 16-inches is ideal so if you’ve got 10 or 12 slats long enough, crosscut them evenly to 18-inches or so. If the majority of your slats are shorter, no sweat. Just cut them to 12-inches and use more to make up the 16-inch width laterally as I did for this example or make a smaller board.

It’s now time to get out your clamps and glue, but first a couple of tips. In the past, I used a plastic-resin glue sold under the name of Weldwood. Mixed with water to the consistency of molasses, it dried waterproof and stronger than steel. Lately, though, it’s been tough to find, so I’ve experimented with other readily available off-the-shelf alternatives rather than doing a special order.

I’ve been using Titebond III glue for the past couple of seasons with good results. It’s probably the easiest to use bottled waterproof glue you can find. It cleans up easily with a wet rag, has good open time, requires no mixing, and holds up to kitchen abuse like nothing I’ve seen in a squeezable product. Polyurethane (e.g. Gorilla Glue) is another option, but it tends to be hard to clean up and leaves you with brown-stained fingers unless you use the care of a surgeon. Marine epoxy is another decent choice (especially if you’re using oily exotic woods like teak) but it’s not my first choice for domestic hardwoods since it’s tricky to mix and apply. If you DO use epoxy, just make sure you get the long-set version and work quickly on the glue-up.

I’d also highly recommend covering your bar and pipe clamps with waxed paper during setup and cover your bench with newspaper too. Regardless of your glue choice, you’re going to move quickly and get a lot of squeeze-out so it’s much easier to peel and pitch the wax than chip away at hardened glue.

Now, just glue your board up piece-by-piece. Be generous with your coverage. Clamp progressively from one end. The slats tend to shift a little so you can adjust them as you go. And don’t over-tighten. You should see glue squeeze out from the joints but if you jack the clamps down like Hercules, you may starve the joint and suffer a split board under regular use.

Let it dry overnight.

Next time, I’ll show you how to size, surface, and finish the project for years of active use.