How to Make a Fabulous Argyle Cutting Board

This is a simple step-by-step guide to make this awesome argyle pattern cutting board.  Yes, it requires having tools... and yes, you need to know how to use those tools.


Please use common sense with working with wood.  Wear a dust mask and use eye protection!

Step 1: Choose Your Wood

Select the wood you would like to use as the main part of your cutting board.  I chose walnut and beech.  This wood has been planed and jointed.

Step 2: Set Your Fence

Set the width you would like on your table saw fence.  I chose 1 1/2 inches, not too big, not too small.

Step 3:

Here are the 1 1/2 inch strips of beech and walnut.

Step 4: Cut Little Squares

Using the cross-cut sled my husband made (https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-better-cross-cut-sled/), I set the stop block at 1 1/2 inches to cut my little squares.  This makes for quick work.  Cut, slide the piece over, cut again.

Step 5: The Squares

I cut 20 beech squares and 12 walnut squares.  Here they are in a rough arrangement so you can see how it will go together.

Step 6: Cutting the Accent Color for the Diagonal Segments of the Cutting Board

I chose padauk for my accent wood.  It's a nice bright orange and really stands out.  I cut eight 1/4 inch pieces of padauk using the thin rip jig in the picture.  

Step 7: Glue-up

You will need to glue-up 8  blocks like this.  These will surround the two center squares.  

Step 8: Make the Center Squares

Glue up two center squares as shown.  Hopefully yours will be a little more even.  Mine needed to be trimmed on the table saw before further assembly.

Step 9: First Round of Gluing and Clamping Complete.

All completed and trimmed.  Again, I arranged them so you can see how they will be arranged for the next glue-up.

Step 10: Mark Your Sides

If you're absent minded like I can be, then mark your sides.  S is for the short padauk pieces and L is for the longer ones.  It made it much less confusing when I glued these together.  I had to cut apart the first cutting board I made like this because I didn't pay attention to where I was gluing these pieces.

Step 11: Short Padauk Strip

Using the padauk strips that you set aside, cut them into pieces a little bit longer than 3 inches.   You can trim the excess on the table saw after.

Step 12: Glue-up #2

Glue the short pieces in between your blocks as shown and clamp.  The second picture is after the clamps have been removed so you can see the order in which they were clamped together.

Step 13: Glue-up #3 and #4

Cut some longer lengths of padauk (around 8 1/2 inches) and glue these in between the pieces in the 2nd glue-up.  I did this in two steps, leaving the center stripe for last.

Step 14: Level Your Surfaces

Using a belt sander with a 60 grit belt, I leveled and smoothed out both sides of the argyle stripe.  As you can see in the first picture,  it is quite uneven and has a lot of glue on the surface.  I needed to do this before trimming on the table saw to get nice cuts.

Step 15: Trim the Sides

Using the cross cut sled again, I trimmed the sides.  I did this by lining up the points of the walnut with the edge of the blade.  Repeat on all four sides.

Step 16: Assemble the Cutting Board

I saved a couple pieces of 1/4 inch thick padauk and had cut extra 1 1/2 inch pieces of walnut to use as the border of the cutting board.   Glue these to the sides of the argyle stripe and clamp.  

Step 17: More Sanding.

The side stripes were slightly thicker than the argyle stripe.  I, again, took out the belt sander with the 60 grit belt to make it even with the middle.  Repeat on reverse side.

Step 18: Routing the Edges

Using a trim router and a 1/4 inch round over bit, I rounded over the edges of the board.  This is personal preference.  If you prefer to use another profile, please do.    

Step 19:

Step 20: Mineral Oil.

Apply a generous amount of mineral oil to the surface of your cutting board (after wiping off excess dust, of course).  Spread around board and wait for it to soak in.  This usually takes about 15-20 minutes.  Wipe of excess with a paper towel.  Repeat a couple more times.

Step 21: Wax Mix

For the final finishing, I use a pre-made oil/wax mix rather than a mineral oil/bees wax mix made at home.  It doesn't have to be heated and applies much easier.  

Apply oil/wax mix to surface of board, spread around, wait... wait... wait... this takes time to soak in.  I let it sit at least for a few hours, but prefer to let sit over night.  

Wipe of excess.

Buff to a nice shine.

Done!