No weapon strikes more fear into a man’s heart than a Klingon chonwI’.
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That is lovely! Nice work.
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Are there cartoonists/animators here?
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Request for advice:
I’ve seen multiple (awesome) woodworkers on here and wonder if anyone can advise on a good cutting board. I’ve read teak is a good wood. I’d prefer something handmade rather than manufactured, if possible. Any ideas or advice on what to look for? I need a true workhorse for the cook of our house that isn’t too hard on his knives. Veg, fruit, and cooked meat. Budget is probably $150
Thank you kindly
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Cutting boards are a very simple thing for woodworkers to make, which means if your see any woodworker selling one, it’s almost certainly good quality. You don’t need BB readers to tell you if your local artisan is making a good one.
Do you have any Christmas fairs around you next month? Where I live near Boston there is always at least one woodworker selling his wares. A good quality handmade board would generally be somewhere between $60-120.
For cutting meat and veg, I’d recommend one with a juice groove on one side. Very handy. After that it’s personal preference. As the main cook of the house, I prefer a standard rectangle, no jutting out handles, and about 3/4 inch thick. Fancy boards are often thicker, and I do own one, but I reach for the lighter-weight one more often.
If you’re looking for a specific online seller, sorry, I’m unhelpful.
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I don’t think you can go wrong with hard maple. It’s a domestic wood, not tropical like teak, so that’s in its favor for me. The one I bought myself a few years ago is just a little too big and heavy at 15x20 inches, though. It seems to be pretty gentle on my knives. Agree with @SamSam that handles are a PITA.
(Not a woodworker, just an avid home cook.)
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@SamSam and @Wayward I hadn’t even considered maple. Which probably shows how little research I did. I agree on handles. And feet. They can look great on a board meant mostly for serving but not the kind of work board I’m interested in.
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Don’t overlook trolling teh secondhand shops. You can sometimes find cutting boards there that just need a good sanding and a re-oiling. It’s a very easy DIY restoration project.
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End grain maple from a local craftsman should fit in under $150, but I don’t know how you’d go about finding a local woodworker in your area (in my area, you just go down to the fancy woodworker tool shop and look on their bulletin board).
Maple is a nice sustainable wood that shouldn’t have to be flown in, and end grain is kind to the knives. I make mine out of black walnut, but that’s only because I have absurd quantities of black walnut on hand.
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My mom made each of the kids a navity set when we each got married, my dad made the stable.
Since I had to put up that rail on the shelf because old man wackadoodle cat kept knocking things off the shelf my dad’s stable no longer fit.
I made a new one with some leftover cedar fence pickets from another project.
My wife still has to put up the full set with lights and fake snow but you get the idea.
I do well with 90, 45, and 22.5 degree angles so this went well.
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I’m getting around to taking apart this wine barrel. It sure smells nice inside!
Staves separated:
Sanded and labeled:
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So, fellow making-things-with-wood people, I have a couple of questions for you. The insides of the staves have a nice color from the wine. The outsides are blond-colored. Do you think I should stain the lighter colored side? Maybe not to match exactly, but just for less contrast? it’s oak, BTW.
- Stain it
- Don’t stain it
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I also want to cover it with spar varnish because it’ll be exposed to the elements. Do you think it would make more sense to stain (optionally) and varnish before building the chair? It seems like it would be easier that way, and probably provide better coverage.
- Varnish or seal the staves first
- Varnish the chair after it’s built
- Why not both?
0 voters
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As someone who has seen some items rot from the inside because paint coverage wasn’t the best, I voted for varnishing both before and after assembly. 
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I’d recommend a good-quality UV-safe varnish, and even then I’m going to guess that the pretty color of the wine stain will eventually fade. But that’s ok, it just means that its beauty will change.
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Wine barrel project progress:
Despite the poll results, I did end up staining the blond oak.
I glued the two barrel ends together to make a nice solid disk for a small tabletop.
Bonus side project: Armillary sphere.
Back and seat assembled:
Splitting turned out to be a major problem, even with these hard oak staves and pre-drilled screw holes. Also that the staves have no right angles at all. Barrels are non-Euclidean
The barrel ends will make a nice small tabletop.
ETA: When we were in Nashville last week, I saw these clever light fixtures at a bar. Barrel staves and hoops FTW! That’s my next project, if I can score some more barrels.
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Done! (except for varnishing, which will have to wait for warmer temps)
I’m considering adding a wine glass holder on one armrest, like this.
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Maybe the wineglass holder could pivot out to the side, and could tuck out of the way when not in use.
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Hey, that’s clever! I have lots of stave-end scraps that would work perfectly. Great suggestion!
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Why not cut the wine glass holder right into the arm rest? It looks like there’s enough of an overhang.
That’s a great looking chair, it reminds me of a rocking chair and matching chair my grandma and her sister had at each of their houses. They both disappeared after they passed and I was too young to figure out where they went.
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