Cutting Boards
A batch of simple hardwood cutting boards built from spare shop stock — walnut, cherry, hard maple, and bloodwood — made as holiday gifts.
Everybody seems to make cutting boards eventually — they’re a great way to burn through hardwood scraps, and they make solid, low-effort gifts. This batch came together out of spare walnut, cherry, hard maple, and bloodwood that had been sitting around the shop.
Lumber for this batch ran about $17.80 a board foot, so each finished board worked out to roughly $20 in wood.
I kept these intentionally small and skipped the usual juice groove — less cutting surface to eat into on a board this size, and one less feature to keep clean. Instead of rubber feet, I gave them two good flat faces so either side works, and they can be flipped or swapped whenever one starts looking rough.
Since most of these went out as gifts, I dressed them up a bit more than usual — each one came with a small sample bottle of finishing oil and a little card with basic care instructions and a note about the wood.
