Black Walnut Chopping boards

[jpor4180]

About to start these tomorrow for a friend, while finishing the trim for my workshop doors (by finishing I meant starting)

The specs are:

• Round cheeseboard with carved handle. 300mm diameter

• Carving board with breadboard ends, stainless steel meat spikes, juice grooves and ss handles. 500mmx350mm

• breadboard with breadboard ends and a sliding dovetail lip to hang over counter. 500mm x 350mm

• Veg cutting board. 450mm x 300mm

• small square herb board with a gently curving bowl carved in - like a very shallow mortar. 200mm

I've picked up some walnut rip offcuts from ruffsawn stock.

When I glue up do I need to pass through thicknesser to smooth edges faces to glue first? My thought is no as a rough surface provides more glue contact point but could lead to a less than parallel arrangement of strips in the chopping board which nobody wants to see?

 

[AJB Temple]

Think twice about a groove all the way round the board. For a cook this is a nuisance as it makes it harder to sweep chopped food off the board. Only useful for carving boards.

 

[MattRoberts]

Rough sawn as in straight from the timber yard? You want a pretty flat surface to miss the glue line. Whilst I agree it shouldn't be sanded to 400 grit, it should be a fair bit smoother than rough sawn.

If you mean rough sawn as in straight from the tablesaw, that should be fine assuming the blade isn't dull

 

[custard]

When I glue up do I need to pass through thicknesser to smooth edges faces to glue first? My thought is no as a rough surface provides more glue contact point but could lead to a less than parallel arrangement of strips in the chopping board which nobody wants to see?

For almost any glue that you're likely to use in woodworking you want the flattest, smoothest glue surfaces you can get. A "toothed" surface may have relevance for veneering with hide glue, but for edge jointing with PVA or UF then smoother is better.

This is the surface quality from a 3 tpi bandsaw, most rough sawn boards from a timber yard will be even rougher (and less true) than this,

This is the surface quality from a professional quality thicknesser, a large diameter four knife block with a slow feed speed, sharp knives, and rubber drive wheels to allow a very fine final cut without marking. If you substitute a thicknesser with toothed drive wheels, a single feed speed, and blunt knives, then the results will be considerably below this,

And this is the almost polished surface you get from a sharp, finely set bench plane,

Most industrial work, especially with the huge pressures they can achieve from hydraulic cramps, will accept the glue lines achievable straight from a good quality thicknesser. But if you look closely you can see the minute scallops that even the best thicknesser will leave. Those scallops will definitely reveal themselves in the glue line. Only you can decide what quality levels you want to achieve with your work, so it's not a question of right and wrong. And you're in luck using Black Walnut, that's a timber that renders glue lines less visible than most others, especially if you use one of the darker blends of PVA. But if you've got the hand skills to reliably produce a square and straight (or minutely hollow) edge with a bench plane, then that's what I'd recommend.

Good luck with your project!

 

[memzey]

I do the same as Custard when it comes to edge jointing; that is use the machines to do most of the grunt work and get me close but then finish up with a bench plane to make the glue lines invisible. I just bet Custard does it a lot quicker than me I’m sure! I’ve just spent the last hour in the shed obsessing over four edges to get them just so. I find it a highly iterative process where while I’m getting the right amount of spring in the joint I might have taken the edge out of square to the face. Correcting that might then introduce a hump in the middle of the joint etc. etc. and madness soon follows... Still, it’s very satisfying when it all comes together. Who know, maybe after 50 years of practice I might be able to wave a plane at an edge and get perfect joints in no time flat like Paul Sellers and a few others seem to be able to do? At least working with the planes at the bench is nice, quiet and absorbing work. Not to mention the fact that if it’s for a piece of furniture where you will likely be seeing that joint often, like a table top, then you’ll have ample opportunity to admire your work.

 

[jpor4180]

Apologies for being so late to reply, I wanted to reply with photos but I've really been prioritising other stuff over this one. It's not so much the glue up that I'm weary of, but the subsequent steps of sliding dovetails, breadboard ends, and the carved handle on the cheeseboard - none of which I've done before.

I really appreciate the insights, and Custard thank you for taking the time to include photos they really helped. I passed through my thicknesser which leaves quite an unbelievably smooth edge. I opted to glue it up at that point rather than hand plane on top - mainly because I'm a bit of a hack with the hand plane and don't trust myself to do a better job than with the thicknesser.

I'm about halfway through the glue up so will be uploading again later in the week with more progress. They were due yesterday but I've pushed it back a week so I've got till next Sunday