I went thru a cutting board phase one time and toward the end I decided to make some crazy cutting boards for Christmas presents.
The way I did it was to glue up strips of dark and light wood going lengthwise of the board to make a 2 striped cutting boards. The strips are different from one board to the other in that one board starts with a light color then a dark,and the second one starts with a dark then a light strip.
The boards are then sanded even when the glue is dry. Then stacked together with double back tape and cut on a random wavy line crosswise, on a bandsaw. This is the first picture of the walnut and maple.
The next ones were made the same way except they were taken a step further and cut wavy lengthwise, then glued together,stacked, and cut again wavy crosswise and swapped again and glued back together.
that gave me idea og making a crazy Chess board. It was made the same way ,cut wavy both directions and glued back together each time. The I put a boarder on it to kind of dress it up a bit.
Herb
Here is the deal, good question. The primary goal is to assure the points of the individual “squares” are exactly touching.
That said, but also the fact that when a curve is sanded the outside curve gets smaller and the inside curve gets larger, when the two are reassembled the effect is doubled. If you notice ALL the points are touching, a lot of unseen labor went into making it so. I was surprised myself that they turned out so well.
I think that one answer is that when they are being cut, you can’t pause,just keep going even if you are off the line. If the cut is hesitated ,the blade wobbles enough to cause wide spot in the kerf. In the case of random curves, it is unnoticeable if the curves don’t match. In a precise pattern it would be more noticeable.
The Chess board border miters are on the same curve as the edge of the checkered squares to the corner of the board.
Herb
Hi Herb! I remember everyone amazed and asking how you did all these crazy designs the first time you showed them around! You are always unique and a true master of the art!
