Aff Wood

Make a cheese cutting board

Time to kick off the holiday gift-making season! For those of you in America, this would also make a great Thanksgiving project.

Rather than make an end-grain cutting board, I decided to make this using the edge grain. While its not as durable as an end-grain cutting board, it is much easier to make and can be run through a planer, something you probably dont want to try with end grain.

I imagine a cheese board will only see use occasionally, for entertaining. Plus, slicing cheese doesnt require a lot of knife-chopping action, so scratches on face grain will be minimal.

I made mine using padauk and cherry. Any hardwood will work.

This is a great opportunity to give your router some action if you havent used it much. The two recessed areas in the board are made using a cutting template. I used a round, bull-nosed bit, but a straight bit would work fine too.

Cutting template

• WWMM Cheese board cutting template (pdf)

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