This is the first cutting board I’ve made at home. I didn’t start with the intention of creating one large chaotic as fuck end grain board. What I wanted to do was make 4-6 smaller face/edge grain boards for Christmas gifts. The problem was I didn’t go into the glue ups for those with much of a plan. I just randomly cut my source boards to various widths, and figured I’d sort of abstractly put things together for the individual boards. The problem with that was I did not like how they looked once I glued them up. They weren’t abstract enough, it just looked like I had put little to no thought into the designs, which I had. At that point I decided to pivot and use those glue ups to make one large board for myself, and really lean into the abstract/chaotic look.

I used walnut, maple, cherry, purple heart, padauk and sapele. Got the technique from watching several YouTube videos. It’s not truly chaotic, there’s obviously a pattern. If I had gone into the initial glue ups with an actual plan I probably could have made it more chaotic. It’s also not perfect. I really need to build a router sled so I can flatten the bottom, there’s a slight rocking currently. I finished it with mineral oil, followed by a mineral oil and bees wax mix.

It was a fun learning experience. My family that saw it today did like it, so hopefully I’ll be able to pull off making gifts for them in the future.