Cutting boards without table saw, planer etc

[Primer]

So I’ve spent WAY too many hours watching YouTube videos of folks making cutting boards and I really would like to get into it.

Is it possible without a table saw and a thickness planer?

Anyone on here into making cutting boards?

 

[thetyreman]

depends, what style of cutting board are you trying to make?

I've made quite a few now with no machines at all.

 

[Primer]

Different species of wood glued together to make interesting designs.

 

[Fitzroy]

Paul Sellers has a Video of making a chopping board with only hand tools. Very basic but you get the idea.

If you are thinking end grain cutting boards then it would be very laborious if even possible.

Fitz.

 

[thetyreman]

here's one I made with breadboard ends and mortise and tenon joinery, I made this last year, probably my favourite project of the year.


Quartersawn Beech Chopping Board by Ben Tyreman, on Flickr

 

[ED65]

Different species of wood glued together to make interesting designs.

If you're thinking end-grain boards – lots of little blocks glued together, often in patterns these days – the answer is probably no. I say probably because it's not impossible to do this kind of thing entirely manually, but for you at this stage I think you need to put aside the idea for now.

But that's not to say you can't make cutting boards by any means. Cutting and serving boards for centuries were made from just planks of wood, and in many ways these are better than chunky boards made in butcher-block fashion.

No need to feel limited as to woods either, softwood boards can and do last far better than people suppose and they're very much more knife-friendly than similar boards made from hardwood, which is an important but oft-overlooked aspect these days.

 

[Callum]

You can but it takes a lot longer. I’ve made 2 now with hand tools (I would like to get a thicknesser!) Good practise with the hand plane mind.

Made some coasters the same way pretty much as well

 

[woodbloke66]

A simple chunk of wood around 25mm thick is all you really need for a chopping/serving board and offcuts are ideal. Over Christmas, our No.1 son mentioned that he didn't have a cheeseboard in his flat, so just after Boxing Day I had a rummage through one of my offcut boxes and found a 250mm square lump of quarter sawn oak. By the time I'd planed each side with a finely set BU smoother, shot the ends square, done a stopped chamfer on the underside at the ends and generally tarted it up (which included a coat of Food Safe Oil) I'd spent about 40 minutes at the bench. The best woods for serving boards are those which don't impart any possible 'taint' to the food, such as sycamore, maple and beech and they also look hygienic to boot - Rob

 

[Vikki]

Hi I'm new to this group. I'm wanting to make some cutting boards and I really like these ones you've made, what would did you use please. Also what other woods can you use for cutting boards. Hope you don't mind me asking. Thanks

 

[thetyreman]

Hi I'm new to this group. I'm wanting to make some cutting boards and I really like these ones you've made, what would did you use please. Also what other woods can you use for cutting boards. Hope you don't mind me asking. Thanks

beech, sycamore, birch, olive wood, cherry, pear, apple and walnut are all good choices, try to avoid open grained woods like oak, ash and elms.