Contrasting Wood Board- Jonah Lawrence

 

    My second Tikeria Project was a wood Charcuterie board. It was originally designed to be a cutting board, but I decided to make a decorative Charcuterie board for parties. There were a limited number of wood clamps, so I partnered with another student. The plan was to make a 24-inch board, and cut it into halves, so we could each have a project. 

    We had 3 types of wood available to us. These were Maple, Cherry, and Walnut. We decided to make a color contrast board. Cherry was the darkest, and Maple was the lightest. We also used Walnut. Our plan was to use the table saw to cut out 5 pieces of wood. 1 was Cherry and there were 2 of each for Walnut and Maple. The cherry plank was to be placed in the middle, and on each side, the pieces would get lighter. The final order was Maple- Walnut- Cherry- Walnut- Maple. 

    After cutting out our planks, we glued and clamped them together. Next class, we cut our own halves. After that, I used the Planer to make the faces even and flat. My next step was to use the Table Router to angle the edges. I used a Chamfer blade to make sharper edges instead of curved. This was likely the most dangerous part of the project as there was an exposed blade. After routing, I sanded my board, applied finishing oil, and burnished it with steel wool.

    This was a fun project, but it could have gone better. I was very afraid to use the Table Router, and Table Saw. This resulted in me not pushing the wood through the blade harder on the table saw. If I had to do this project again with no partner, I would make a more intricate cutting board with smaller wood planks. Overall, though, this was another successful project.