Argyle cutting/serving board

I’m calling this one Argyle no. 1 “The hard way.”

The project started with me cutting out all the individual squares of Maple and Walnut, gluing them up into small groups, and in turn gluing them up into a larger, growing mass, with thin strips of cherry slipped in as the pattern dictated.

As soon as I started trying to glue together (and maintain alignment) of the first groupings of 3 and 4 individual squares, I thought there had to be a better way. So, I began brainstorming - starting with glueing up long strips, cross cutting those - akin to making a chess board and going from there, avoiding starting out with so many small (hopefully identical) pieces. I’ll tentatively call that one (still in progress) “the easy way.” Time will tell if that is the “slightly easier way” or just a different type of logistical nightmare with loads of clamps, trying to maintain precise alignment, and even more clamps.

Hopeful thoughts of the next one aside, I persevered with this one. Built in stages, partially to have fewer things to (attempt to) keep aligned during the many glue-ups, and partially because there was only so much room get all the clamps positioned. (Did I mention that all these tiny pieces demanded an unrealistic number of clamps?

Walnut, Maple and Cherry, finished with wood butter, a little over 9 x12 inches, and nearly 1 inch thick. Technically a cutting board, more likely destined to serve charcuterie and keep the knives from dinging up this beauty.

I did a couple posts during the process on instagram: (more photos!.. some duplicates)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CY0bVYQA0d9/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CY8QlmTADmF/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZTW1isgU3o/

#keeponmaking #projectaweek #project52