I gotta make me some of them Charcuterie Boards

Yes I am...

Barry Irby

I know the word, but am not sure exactly what a Charcuterie board is or exactly what function it serves. I made some a year or two ago even with my very limited grasp.

One was a piece of Osage shaped like a Y, a branch union. The woman who bought it held it up to herself and said "It looks like a pair of shorts." I explained it was a "branch union" because it is now considered uncouth to call it a crotch. She laughed and said she thought crotch was a much better description, and bought it.

Does calling it a Charcuterie Board raise the price?

Part of my problem is I like making stuff but don't enjoy the selling part.

Re: Yes I am...

Dick Coers

It takes the price way up! That guy who sold that board on Facebook earned $95 a board foot for cutting a handle on one end and filling a void with 2 colors of resin.

Sounds way classier than "cold meat"

Bill Howatt

Heard for the very first time the word "charcouterie" in a TV add for meat products a few months ago. Since then the word has spread like COVID-19.

Bill

Fine

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

But "Crudites Board" will kick that price even higher.

[google it ]

I looked at Etsy and FB Marketplace

Barry Irby

There are a ton of these on both. Don't know how to make any that would stand out and sell.

Talked to our daughter-in-law yesterday

Dick Coers

She's going to do the resin pouring for me. I'll be taking some elm burl slices over there tomorrow to get started. Lots of voids and bark inclusions in that stuff! I can't believe I'm selling out to the resin craze. Sigh! But sitting on thousands of bd ft of lumber until I die is hardly smart either.

Re: Talked to our daughter-in-law yesterday

Barry Irby

I am fascinated with the resin and the river table craze. Kind of like watching a train wreck in slow motion. With the prices they seem to be getting for those tables I just can't take my eyes away. OTOH I just saw another video about the join between the resin and the wood failing. My gut instinct is they are bound to fail in time. I suspect small repairs like knots and small cracks may be fine but seams six or seven feet long are doomed.

I want to make and sell one of those five or ten thousand dollar tables but I would feel like a dirt bag doing it.

And

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Unless you make'em sign a waiver that covers most everything, the call-backs will be a bitch!

That's why I used loose tenons as the primary joiners in my maple "creek" top.

Re: Talked to our daughter-in-law yesterday

William Duffield

My understanding is you do not want to use West System, because it cures too brittle. You want something much more flexible. A friend who does a lot of infusions into "artistic" wood recommends Alumilite epoxy resins.

Re: I gotta make me some of them Charcuterie Board

Andy Lincoln,in Dearborn MI

The owner of the company at my previous employer's daughter was getting married so we glued up a ton of walnut,cnc'd it to shapes and then finished with (I believe ) a food safe oil finish. IIRC there was 3 pieces per table and 40 tables . Someone at each table "wins" a raffle and takes the set home. I'd bet the total cost on these was astronomical if it was a paying customer. We likely by the time it was said and done 12-15 hourly employees worked on some facet of the project,over 3-4 weeks. It was especially fun for me as I am allergic to walnut dust. I had to be extra careful, but survived. It was the end of our work season and I ,as suspected was laid off shortly thereafter.

https://postimg.cc/gallery/xQbLQ2j

Re: Talked to our daughter-in-law yesterday

David Weaver

I wonder how that one will end. Live edge slabs showed up with bandmills. Then everyone bought a bandmill and now there are used bandmills and a lot of "slabs" for sale.

Someone at a prior job mentioned to me that a friend's husband was starting a woodworking business, but he was starting (I could tell) the business at the same time he was starting woodworking. His wife was really gung ho about promoting his business, but he did none of it. She asked me what I thought (he had cutting boards and pizza slips). I told her that I wished him luck, and that marketing is generally what makes a woodworking business work, but don't overspend on equipment yet and maybe the business would be better as an evening and weekend thing on top of a job. I never heard about it again.

I saw a youtube video over lunch about a walnut slab table that was "$10,000". I didn't click on it as most on here are aware that they could make the same table, but 20 people could and maybe one would be shrewd enough to find a buyer who didn't know that 20 people could make the same thing.

One last story - someone had rented a shop space in the strip down here. My wife, who doesn't like that I woodwork, figured the guy must know a lot more about woodworking than I do. We were in the strip getting food and went into the shop - again, the marketing flavor was heavy, but the work was in keeping with the stuff that's trendy now. Reclaimed wood, cutting boards, heavy on the woo and while there was nothing wrong with the work, none of it made you think "ooh.. I just have to go make one of those".

If someone can rent a shop space and have their spouse staffed wondering their shop, though, whatever they're doing is a good lesson for anyone who might want to make and sell things.