cutting board

Re: cutting board

William Duffield

It is pretty clear that you turned the chopper on two centers, one for the rim and one for the bottom of the bowl. It appears that the "well" is at a lower level than the bottom (chopping surface). How do you prefer to hollow the well?

I am asking because I am trying to figure out how to make matching cutting boards for some ulu knife kits I'm working on. For chopping nuts, I think I need to make the walls higher than on yours, to stop flying shrapnel. I would also like to shape the bottom and sides so that the ulu knife can scrape them clean, and into a bowl.

For mine, I have a few more design criteria that I'm working on, but discussing any more of them at this point would only confuse the current discussion.

The process

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

BTW I chop nuts on our board that is essentially identical. One chops with a rolling motion of a chefs knife and little kinetic energy is imparted to the particles.

Anybody with a lathe would turn the shallow bowl part then proceed as I have.

After gluing up the blank I drill a line of holes around the edge to get clearance for what comes next.



I then free hand route the inside of the "bowl" with a bit with a rounded end that I don't remember what it is called

Then I free hand route out the bottom of the bowl. Band saw the circle. Smooth circle and route a 1/4 round on bottom.

Now the neat part. Mount in a router sled with one end propped up 3/4". Lock in place using the cut-offs from making the circle screwed to base of sled. Route away the lip going from zero to the bottom of the bowl on the opposite side. Sand smooth.

Flip and add a cleat to bottom to raise the rimless end up level with the opposite side (I think I have a picture of this cleat in my Gallery)

Re: The process

William Duffield

Thanks for the explanation. I have a lathe, and expect I will be able to do most of the work on it by adjusting the centers and scroll chuck. I also have a Longworth chuck, if I decide I can shape a more or less square perimeter for the board.

Your router bit is called a core box bit.

I've been chopping nuts on a flat chopping board with a French chef's knife, and a hand spread out over top of the work. It stops a lot of the nut fragments, and the dogs get the rest.

If the bit is flat bottomed....

John in NM

Its called a bowl bit or a bowl and tray bit. Core box bits are half round.

Re: The process

J Barrett Irby Jr

I mentioned in Bill's previous posts that I have done about 6 of these. I made up the blanks and cut it round on the bandsaw and sanded it flat with a drum sander, then mounted it in Cole jaws with a 3/4 spacer under one edge and turned it. Sometimes I dish the other side out slightly. Most of mine were end grain. I also turn a groove around the edge to form a handle.

Picture?

Re: The process

William Duffield

A design concept or two: You could instead leave the edge square, if you wanted, and remove material with a core box bit (or other profile) from the bottom edges of the two sides for hand holds. Cole jaws (or a Longworth chuck) will grip square profiles just as easily as round profiles. A square edge would leave you enough real estate to cut a slot to store the knife when you weren't actively chopping. You could instead inset a couple of rare earth magnets in the edge to hold the blade.