Walnut Chopping Board, will it split?

[marku]

Hi

My son wanted to make something for his Mums chritmas present, I have some walnut that has been air dried for 2 years so I thought he could make a chopping board, hopefully this will be easy enough and fast enough to hold his attention.

Is walnut suitable and if it is will it split? There is quite a bit of splitting at one end but there seems to be plenty of good timber.

Hopefully the small boy gives a sense of scale.

Has anyone got any other ideas for something he could make from this bit of timber, please remember he is 9!

Cheers Mark

 

[thetyreman]

something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbreLrpLW_c

it only requires a few basic handtools and it's a simple easy shape, and it's safe

 

[AJB Temple]

Walnut (edible nut) is fine for culinary purposes.
End grain is kinder on knives, but only knife aficionados will care.
His mother will love it.
So go for it.

 

[marku]

Thanks for the replies, great video I will get George to watch it. He spends a fair amount of time watching youtube, I did suggset he watches some wood related vids. He tells me they are too slow! I think he might like this one because it keeps moving and he has all the tools in the video including the workmate.

 

[paulm]

Nice piece of timber Mark 8)

Should make a fine chopping board.

If it does split or cup then just run it through a table saw or circular saw, true up the edges and glue and clamp back together and no one will know

Cheers, Paul

 

[Beau]

Just to agreeing with the others. Walnut is great for boards with nice close grain. My folks have one that is still going strong and must be nigh on 50 years old.

 

[ED65]

I was going to suggest the same Paul Sellers video but thinking about it that might be a bit ambitious as well as needing to go into areas of the board where the wood is harder to work. Instead I'd go with a smaller utility board, just a plain rectangle, which simplifies the work needed greatly to make it much more achievable.

Completed board will look something like this if you're oiling:

After cutting to size and smoothing, small radius done on the corners, ease the edges, job done.

 

[custard]

Good to see youngsters learning tool skills. You might get some useful whittled spatulas and other kitchen knick knacks from the off-cut. Work a deep bevel, at least across the ends, so that it's easy to pick up from a flat surface, you can work some pleasing and original shapes into a chopping board with just a spokeshave.

Good luck!

 

[marku]

Great advice as ever,

Paul you might reconise the wood, I think its a bit that you cut with your chainsaw. Its one of the smaller pieces, Ive managed to get the rest of the wood stored in a dry barn for the last 6 months or so and it seems to have seasoned well, I will unstack it at some stage and see how much usable timber is there and how much has split!

I think we will follow the advice and keep it simple as above, I like custards idea of making the bevel so it can be picked up.

It will be interesting to see how he gets on with this one, his hand skills are improving all the time and hes strong enough to get on now.