Op-art cutting board

Using hardwoods of strikingly different colors, TOH contractor Tom Silva and TOH host Kevin O'Connor team up to create a cutting board with an eye-catching 3D effect

- TIM SNYDER

It's easy to understand why cutting boards are such popular woodworking projects: You don't need to spend a lot to get creative with fancy patterns and wood species. That's what Tom Silva set out to do in making this “op-art” cutting board, with an assist from Kevin O'Connor. “I've seen these in woodworking magazines, and I thought it would be fun to try it out," Tom says.

Three woods of contrasting colors give the board its intriguing appearance: maple, oak, and cherry sourced from a hardwood lumber dealer. Tom and Kevin cut and glued together wood strips into identical rhombus shapes, then sliced them into six-sided pucks. When assembled into a board, they fool the eye into seeing three dimensions. As with any board in which the grain runs vertically, “a knife does less damage to the wood than on a flat-grain board," Tom says.

Cutting boards make great gifts. Tom had such a good time making this one, he went ahead and made two of them: one for his son and one for his daughter.

TOOLS

thickness planer

track saw (or circular saw) with fine-finish blade

table saw with fine-finish blade

magnetic angle finder or protractor and bevel gauge

miter saw

band saw or scroll saw

belt sander or 1.5-hp router with slab flattening bit

compact router with 1/2-inch round-over bit

random-orbit sander

MATERIALS

6/4*8 clear walnut, 30 inches long

6/4*8 clear maple, 30 inches long

6/4*8 clear cherry, 30 inches long

hot-melt glue

water-resistant wood glue

1 1/2-inch-wide painter's tape

120- and 220-grit sandpaper

cutting-board oil

STEP-BY-STEP

1] Plane the boards to a uniform thickness.