First (Cutting Board) Love

The shop has been humming with activity these past two weeks!

And I think it's important to remember that feeling you had when you completed your first piece in wood. Can you remember it? Was it a combination of pride - and a little frustration at whatever you wanted to improve in the next piece?

In fact - the group of woodworkers that meets at my shop once a month joke about how we all have a tendency to point out the flaws in our pieces when we show them to someone. All woodworkers do that, I'm not sure why! 

In fact, we're talking about a fifty-cent fine for every time we do it. We'll rack up a lot of (beer) money in no time! 

This week in the shop, eight more people experienced the joy of making their first cutting board. 

It might seem like a simple project, but there is a lot going on with these boards. They had to choose their woods, and glue everything together, hopefully flat and mostly wobble free.

This is the perfect squaring-up project - after the piece is dry, they plane the board, and trim the ends. Inlaying a plug is an option, but - check out his plugs! 

Everyone has to eat, right?

Isn't a cutting board the best "first project" ever? 

If you have any doubt about that,

 look at their faces and then tell me it's too simple of a project!

I tell everyone on the first night of class that the Basic Woodworking class is my favorite class to teach. I think it's because of the reaction that people have to making their first finished piece. 

I can't tell you how many people I will run into - sometimes decades later - that tell me they still have their cutting boards in their kitchen. Some of them have still NEVER cut on it! WTF?

All I can say to them is - use it! It's like "saving the good china" for the day that never comes!

Please - use it and enjoy it. Don't save it for a special occasion - EVERY day should be a special occasion.

Thanks for another great class, everyone!