It was time for another bread board. This time I found some Oak and a couple of pieces of Idigbo that went together well. I planed them all to the same thickness and squared the edges using the planer-thicknesser. I cut a couple of narrow strips of African Mahogany to use as a contrasting feature. I rearranged the pieces to find the most pleasing layout. In the end I decided to place the darker heartwood of the Idigbo next to the Oak, leaving the lighter sapwood on the outside edges of the piece.

I glued the pieces together and then clamped them while the glue set.

I could remove the clamps after about thirty minutes, and planed the mahogany strips down to the same level as the Oak using my new Veritas Low-angle Block Plane.

Then I trimmed the ends using the table saw

.. and sanded the faces level using the belt sander

I used the lid from a spray can to mark a radius on each corner

and then used the disk sander to radius each corner

I rounded all edges using a ΒΌ” round-over bit in the router table

.. and smoothed the whole board using the random-orbit sander. Then it was time for finishing. I started with 4 or 5 coats of Danish Oil

..followed by beeswax for a lustrous sheen

Tools used

  • Table saw
  • Surface Planer (Jointer)
  • Bandsaw
  • 6″ Belt sander
  • Random-orbit sander
  • Router table
  • 1/4″ Round-over bit (router)
  • 120 grit belt (belt sander)
  • 180 grit and 320 grit discs (RO sander)
  • Veritas Low-angle Block Plane
  • Various clamps

Materials used

  • African mahogany
  • Idigbo
  • Oak
  • Danish oil
  • Beeswax
  • Gorilla wood glue

Things learned

  • Old beeswax difficult to use – not sure if that was the actual problem but had trouble buffing when using an old beeswax – it remained somewhat tacky after vigorous buffing. I removed it and applied a brand new one and it seemed better.

Gallery