My latest commission

I’ve just been approached by a restaurant, looking for a set of carving boards and thought this would fit the bill. This sample is made from 35 mm thick beech and is 32 cm in diameter. The groove and well should prevent any drippings from running over the side of the board.

My initial plan was to use a router for all stages. Having machined and sanded some boards to the correct thickness, there seemed no point in mounting them onto the lathe, since the round over and groove could be made by other methods. However, I soon discovered the there was a lot of sanding required after the router had made its cut and this could be done more quickly if the boards had been lathe mounted!

I used a router with circle cutting attachment to make the small well. This was fairly straight forward, but did require a lot of hand finishing in order to clean up the cut. I was surprised by the lack of splintering and the finished profiles seem to be very crisp. I finished off the top surface with an orbital sander and 240g sanding disc.

I will give this board quite a few coats of mineral oil and allow at least a full day between each coat. It soaks in incredibly well and is certainly my favourite oil at the moment.