by Lets start with the basics with a question I often get asked.
Which is… “Why does my wood warp or cup after I’ve made a charcuterie board?”
Simple. The wood must by dry first before you start working with it. There is a lot of variables when it comes to the right moisture content. Type of wood, location, relative humidity and it’s use are just a few.
The walnut wood that I have been using so far was given to me by my father in law who had the wood stored in a dry place for years. And then I’ve had it for about two years before I even used it. So I’ll be honest I did not even bother getting a moisture reading on this wood.
All future wood that I purchase I will be looking for a moisture reading around 8% to 10%. And I’ll be using this Moisture Meter to take my readings.
Prepare The Wood
Generally the wood I use comes in long lengths. Sometimes up to ten feet. So I take a little time and look at the grain that I can see to try to decide what lengths and shapes of boards to be cut out of this long board.
The wood will be warped or cupped in some way. So to get the boards flat I use a power planer to get this process done. For the first face of the board I put the wood on what’s called a planer sled.
In general this is a flat piece of wood or MDF that you attach the wood to be flatten to. Using hot glue to attach it makes for easy removal once one side is flattened.
Shims may also be used if the wood is really warped. Typically so far a large glob of hot glue is good enough to keep the wood stable.
Now the fun part of sending the wood through the power planer for the first time. This is always exciting as it finally reveals the wood grain in detail.
Once the first side is flat, simply remove the wood from the sled and send it through the planer with the now flat side facing down. Doing this will now get the rough face flat and parallel to the first face.
Two Ways To Design The Boards.
The first way is to use a template using say 1/4″ MDF. With this method you could have one or more template shapes ready to go.
Once the templates are ready, simply attach them to the wood to be used with double sided tape. Then cut just outside the template with a band saw or jigsaw. Then you can use a router with a flush trim bit to remove the last bit of wood to get to the template shape.
This first method can certainly batch out a lot of boards quickly. But does not take into account grain patterns for the final look of the board.
The second method, and the one I use most often, is to look at the wood grain first and let it tell me what shape to cut the board.
To do most of the cutting on my boards I use a band saw. A jig saw will also do the job just fine.
For most of the handle holes I use my drill press with large Forstner bits.
One example would be this board that had a defect or crack running down the length of the board. The crack ran with the wood grain so I decided to cut along that crack to give it this curved look at the top of the board.
And the hole for the handle had a knot in the wood at this location. So I simply drilled out the knot which made for a perfect handle location.
Sanding And Shaping
Now that the basic shape of the board is done it’s time for everyone’s favorite thing to do. Sanding! Yeah, can you hear my sarcasm;).
In all seriousness, this is a very important step. This will make the difference between a good board and a great board.
I usually start off with 120 grit paper in my orbital sander and go up to 220 grit. The use of the orbital sander is mainly for the two flat faces of the boards. For the edges and inside the handle holes I use a mix of my oscillating spindle sander, fine grit sanding pads and thin trips of regular sandpaper. This is because these options will follow the curves of the wood.
And I also usually go ahead and use my trim router with a 1/8″ round over bit to round over all the edges at this time. I only do this step on edges that do not have a live edge.
Once everything is sanded up to 220 it’s time to “raise the grain”.
When you sand wood, in general, the sandpaper does remove the course grain of wood that is “sticking up” from the surface of the wood. But it also “lays down” any other smaller wood grain not yet sanded off. The wood will seam like it’s smooth but we can do better.
So someone found out that if you spray the wood with water and then let it dry, it will raise the remaining grain back up again.
Once this is done the wood will now feel rough again. This is the grain that has “stood” back up again.
Now is where I start sanding again starting with 220 grit. I personally go through the grits all the way up to 600 or even 800 grit sandpaper. And again this is for the faces of the board.
For the edges I again use sanding pads, thin strips of regular sandpaper and even use the round sandpaper for my sander with just my hands. Basically whatever I can you to get the boards as smooth as possible.
As I mention in my video, to say that there is a lot of sanding is a huge understatement! But again, it is needed to make a great board.
Time To Finish The board.
Ideally the board should be blown off to remove as much loose dust as possible with an air compressor or even vacuuming off the dust is another option. Then using a clean cotton towel, wipe off the board. And finally with another clean towel and a small amount of denatured alcohol wipe off the board again.
Now that the board is clean, it’s time to apply the oil. I personally use several gallons of food grade mineral oil in a large storage bin.
Using this amount of oil in a storage bin makes it easy to just dunk most boards into the oil and let them soak. Any boards that are to large I just poor the oil onto the boards while sitting in the storage bin.
I let my boards soak for at least 20 minutes before wiping off the excess oil. Then I usually let them dry over night or at least six hours before applying food safe wax. At this time I like to use Walrus Oil Wax but in the future I would like to start making my own wax.
Applying the wax is a simple process of rubbing the wax on, let dry for at least 15 minutes and then wipe off.
And now you’re done! So get out there and get some nice wood and create your own beautiful boards!
Thank you for checking out this post and if you have any questions just let me know. Most all the tools and supplies mentioned in this post are listed in the “Supplies I Use” page on my site.
John.
Any links in this post are Amazon Affiliate links. This means that if you purchase any items through these links I get a very small percentage at no extra cost to you. It’s just a small way to help me out.
Thank you!!1