I just finished the “Mother of All Boards” as we’re calling it, and here are the post-install pictures. My wife’s a gourmet cook and we built her a new kitchen. We used stock cabinetry and some granite on the sink-side, but she wanted a run of end-grain walnut butcher-block countertops on the stove-side of the operation. About forty square feet, I think. I got a $3,000 quote, thought “that’s ridiculous”, and well, you’re a bright guy, you know all about that particular road to hell. Actually, it was kind of fun. Scratching around for notes on technique was what led me to your site. I found (and enjoyed) your cutting board video and decided to adapt your technique.
Here’s a run-down of my process:
1) Mill out a bunch of 19″L X 1″H X 2″W pieces (my hardwood supply’s 4/4 is actually about 9/8)
2) Mill out a second bunch of 19″L X 1″H X 1″W pieces
3) Join one 1″W piece to 5 2″W pieces, making an edge-grain board
4) Thickness plane these edge-grain boards to about 15/16
5) Slice the edge-grain boards to 2 1/16″ (each board yields about 8
slices of end-grain)
6) Join the end-grain into tiles, alternating the 1″W piece from left
to right to yield a checkerboard
7) Square the tiles and join them into larger blanks (or a big hollow
square, in the case of the cooktop insert) in a pipe-clamp press.
Then came the conundrum. There are four big blanks in these countertops, and I knew that thicknessing them was going to be a pain. My first thought was a 36″ drum sander, but I wound up going to my buddy’s high-end mantel shop, http://mantelsofyesteryear.com, and using his CNC router instead because I was worried about scorching and snipe on the sander. The CNC routing was really interesting. We spent a Saturday thicknessing and dimensioning these things, and the end result was a set of blanks that were precisely squared, dimensioned, and rounded over on the edges.
Vital stats. These countertops are 1 7/8″ thick. I used about 130 BF of walnut and 2 1/2 gallons of Titebond III. They’re finished with food-grade mineral oil. And they weigh about three hundred thousand pounds! I couldn’t have done this project without Jet parallel-jaw clamps or a Freud crosscutting blade. Or without the Wood Whisperer, for that matter, thinking through your process was what made me see that there was larger potential. So thanks again.
Wow! I love how that turned out. I’ve been wanting do a butcher block top for my kitchen island. Now I have been inspired. Thanks!
Wow 2 1/2 gal. of glue I use that about every 5 years.
is that 300,000 lbs a typo? that seems a little heavy. i think those cabinets would be crumbling under that much weight.
Probably feels that heavy :)
at about 3.75 lbs per board foot for walnut, and 130 board feet used, should be about 487.5 pounds! Not including glue :)
If he got quoted $3000 from a pro, then what was the final cost of himdoing it himself? I bet after the installation was finished it was about the same.
Your Ginormous 3 bazillian pound cutting board came out GREAT!
That’s a very cool countertop! It helps to have friends with the really big ticket machine, huh?! I can’t imagine the work to level that top with out the CNC router.
In the end who cares what it cost. You get to say to yourself I built that for my wife. It’s also a good way to justify all the tools you’ve bought & are going to buy. Nice work Ed.
Ed here. Materials and a nice tip for my buddy with the router came in at about a thousand bucks even. (Of course, I used the project as an excuse to buy a couple of new tools…)
Being a gourmet chef is your wife concerned with the bacteria issue of having wood counters? Personally I really like them and I think you did a phenomenal job!!! They look incredible!
I think it’s cool. I’ve thought about doing something like that myself but never really seriously. I’m a tad closer to thinking about seriously doing it someday, maybe. :) I just need to find a buddy with a CNC router.
Excellent. I wish I could tackle something like this. You did a great job. Keep up the good work.
David
I’ve never seen walnut butcher block on that scale… it looks awesome! I’m buliding a roll-around island right now for a friend and after seeing the awesomeness that is this counter top, I think am going to build the top out walnut… it would go well with her kitchen.
great photos….did you stain these tops ..if so was it a special stain and what was the finish you used….