Football and Cutting Boards

Today is a short day.  Everything stops at my house for University of Tennessee football, especially when they are playing Georgia.  The game started at noon, so I only had a few hours this morning to work in the shop.  I used the time to start oiling finished boards.  I have so many that I had to set up my 6 foot booth tables to have enough space to spread them out.  I was only able to get about half of them on the tables, but I’ll rotate the next set in after the ball game.

I also got the walnut end grain boards back out of the clamps this morning and flattened them with the drum sander.

These are the two sets of walnut strips that are glued up and waiting to be sanded to remove the excess glue.  Once I cross cut them into  1 1/2 inch strips, I will glue them again to get three large end grain boards out of these.

This is what came out of the previous picture.  I got three 12 x 16 x 1 1/2″ boards out of the first glued up pair.   These are ready for a second trip through the sander at 180 grit.  I’ll then round over the edges, cut handles, and finish sand them to 220 grit before applying the oil.

Overall, I am pleased with the progress in increasing my inventory for the next couple of shows.  45 – 19 Tennessee!!!!  Ok, time to get back to work…..

Eight Days and Counting

I have eight days left before I head to Tennessee for my next show and the pressure is starting to build.  My face grain large board inventory is back to acceptable levels, but I still have at least one more day before they are ready for the oil finish.  I spent all day today running boards through the drum sander, thinking I would be done by noon, but it actually took me until about 3PM.  I run them though using 80 grit paper to remove excess glue and flatten them, then again at 180 grit to smooth the sanding marks.  Tomorrow I will round the edges on the router table and do a final sanding at 220 grit with my random orbit sander.   After these are bagged and tagged, I still have bread boards and large walnut endgrain boards to complete.   My plan is to get these started before the weekend.

This is a partial pile of boards in the process of sanding.  The stack on the left have been sanded and flattened.  The ones on the right are patiently waiting for their trip through the drum sander to remove the glue.  It generally takes three to four passes per side.

These are something new that I made up during a diversion moment.   Small cutting or cheese boards are very useful and popular with my customers.  I am trying out some with a handle at the Tennessee show to see how they do.   I found that cutting out and sanding the handles on these is very time consuming, so I am still soul searching the selling price.  These have some real pretty wood combinations and will look great once the oil is applied.