So I just picked up this 12"×6"×10’ maple beam at an auction today and had to chop off two feet of it to fit it in my car. I’m thinking of making a couple end-grain carving boards for friends with what was cut off.

I’m tentatively thinking of just slicing it into 2" cookies and gluing them together, but I’ve never seen a cutting board like this that wasn’t a collection of like 1" pieces glued together. Is there any reason not to use larger pieces when gluing up a cutting board? Thanks in advance

This is the face that was cut today, feels bone-dry

  • @almar_quigley
    1•2 months ago

    I think this has been somewhat alluded to but you will be more stable with smaller pieces. First it increases the overall glue surface in the piece. End grain is somewhat fragile so depending on how your friends use them it could be a problem with bigger pieces. The other thought is overall aesthetic. I’m wondering if it will look weird if you have larger end grain pieces vs smaller. Not sure either way but worth looking at. You could dry fit with larger pieces and if it looks funny then just cut them down to a smaller size.