Ill start by saying my wife would like a butcher block style countertop center island in our new house and would like me to do it. I told her I would have to start somewhere smaller first, before even attempting something to that scale. KenofCary was nice enough to share some of his scrap walnut he had to help out. He gave me more than enough to make a few cutting boards and Im grateful for that and some sound advice.
Being a newbie with bare minimal power tools and experience I brought some of the walnut over to Fitch's in Carrboro. There was a guy there to offered to plane it down, square it up, and rip it down for me. We were able to get 8 pieces that measured 1.5"x1.5"x20". 3 of which were perfect, the others have some splits that will need to be cut out. It should still leave plenty to get a good sized board out of.
That is where I am as of now. I will head outside to start cutting them down into 1.5" cubes. It would be nice if all 8 pieces were perfect, then I could just glue them up together, then make cross cuts and rotate and glue again. But I believe I wont be able to do that. I may can for the 3 good pieces but we'll see.
I forgot to take a picture of what the wood was like when I picked them up from Ken but here it is as they are now.
Being a newbie with bare minimal power tools and experience I brought some of the walnut over to Fitch's in Carrboro. There was a guy there to offered to plane it down, square it up, and rip it down for me. We were able to get 8 pieces that measured 1.5"x1.5"x20". 3 of which were perfect, the others have some splits that will need to be cut out. It should still leave plenty to get a good sized board out of.
That is where I am as of now. I will head outside to start cutting them down into 1.5" cubes. It would be nice if all 8 pieces were perfect, then I could just glue them up together, then make cross cuts and rotate and glue again. But I believe I wont be able to do that. I may can for the 3 good pieces but we'll see.
I forgot to take a picture of what the wood was like when I picked them up from Ken but here it is as they are now.