After I made a charcuterie board for my wife, she showed photos of it to several of our friends. A few of them asked for one of their own, and I was happy to oblige. And I figured that since I was going to be making some, it would be a good opportunity to make a video to share with you lovely people.
Along with the video comes the description…
Of course the first thing to do with these projects is to plane the boards. I am not aiming for a certain thickness, or to completely remove the imperfections of the boards. I’m just going for uniformity.
It isn’t included in the video or the photos, but I cut the boards down to length. A couple boards were cut in half, and the other was cut in thirds. Each edge that will be glued is given a straight edge. You can do this with a jointer if you have one. Since I don’t, I use a straight piece of MDF and a flush trim bit on the homemade router table. I stuck the boards together using some mounting tape. This gave them significant hold for this, but then I was still able to pull them apart.
With the edges cut straight I glued them together. I only trimmed the edges that were going to be glued, and I left the outer edges as they were. This was done so that the outside had more of a natural feel, but since the boards were pretty straight anyway I’m not sure how much of an impact this had.
All but one of the boards was given a handle. I measured two inches from the end, and four inches wide for these, but you can (obviously) do whatever works for you. I felt that this made a good handle size. The ends of the handles were cut with a 1 3/8 inch drill bit.
From experience it was easier to mark the perimeter of the handle after the outer holes were made. The video shows this. I used a jigsaw to cut along my marks, but a scroll saw, coping saw, hand saw, etc. will also work. The good thing with a scroll saw is that you can remove the blade, insert it in the holes, and re-attach it. But I think if you have a scroll saw in your possession, you probably have something that works better for this.
Since I have a drum sanding kit that I use on the knife handles I make, I went ahead and used it to clean up this handle. An oscillating spindle sander might work best for this if you have one, but since I don’t this is what I used.
The boards I made for the video all got a round over on the router table When routing across the grain, make sure you place a piece of sacrificial wood against your project to keep the end from tearing out. This board was given a decorative edge instead of a handle. Please see the video for the details on this.
The handles were given the same round over as the outside of the boards. If you do this on a router table, it’s best to place it over the bit while the router is off and no piece of the bit is touching any of the wood. Then you can turn the router on and gently ease the wood into the bit and move in the same direction as you would. Again, check out the video to see how I didi this.
After planing down and cutting the boards I sanded them down with 80-grit sandpaper. When everything was getting prepped for finish, I sanded with 110-grit paper and then gave it a final sanding with 220-grit.
Thanks to The Wood Whisperer I decided to finish these boards with tung oil cut with a citrus solvent. In the past I have used a salad bowl finish with anything that I wanted to be food-safe, but I really like this option. With this tung oil I applied the oil, let it set for one hour, wiped the excess, then left it for another 12 hours. Whatever product you use, just make sure you follow their instructions. I just recommend making sure that what you use is food-safe.
Please let me know what you think in the comments below. And thanks for checking this out!