Repairing a wooden cutting board.

[Surewhitey]

A surface planer will do it. Most carpenter shops would have one. It will easily remove 1/16" per pass, just take as many passes as necessary to clean up the surface and get to the desired overall thickness. Afterwards use food safe oil to finish.

End grain is so hard, 1/16" is not a good idea... More like paper thickness and more passes. Using new blades is a good idea too...

 

[pjigar]

Two points:
1. Cutting it in a half is not a practical option. The only way to "slice" a finished product of such size is a sawmill.
2. Refinishing is an option but tricky because this is an end-grain cutting board. Hand tools would be very hard to finish end grain. You will need a surface planner and/or sander to refinish it.

 

[indiajust]

I have run about a dozen cutting boards through a 4 foot belt sander to dress the surfaces again for wax and oil. takes minutes. End grain can disintegrate destructively with too aggressive cut. If you must plane, use an index head planer to reduce the cutting forces that might crack a glue joint.

 

[Tetto]

End grain is so hard, 1/16" is not a good idea... More like paper thickness and more passes. Using new blades is a good idea too...

Amen. Thickness planing a end grain cutting board is kinda like bomb defusing….you have to be careful big time and have a piece the same thickness on trailing edge to prevent chip out

 

[Surewhitey]

Amen. Thickness planing a end grain cutting board is kinda like bomb defusing….you have to be careful big time and have a piece the same thickness on trailing edge to prevent chip out

This is exactly what it's like. I was on pins and needles doing mine. Added a 1/8" roundover to the edges and it prevented blow out.

 

[audreyh1]

So I hope folks realize that Jerry1 already sold this board as he announced in post #46.

 

[sengsational]

@audreyh1 , Yep, but ideas still keep coming!

I like the router idea that @BoldPelikan proposed. Nobody had that earlier in the thread, that I remember. It would take a lot of passes and then would require sanding, but even with end grain, if you had a sharp bit, you'd have a perfect surface without trying to do a "sawmill" type cut on the whole block.

 

[tizod]

I would route out a groove around the top edge with a reservoir for meat juices and blood and stuff. Even at 1.5” thick you would have plenty of depots for that!

Well the answers to the woodworking are all in the above threads, but your point is great. I voted to surface plane the top and bottom to reduce height and refinish both sides. I did forget to note the routed drain path - with a "pour spout". And put the spout on the side you can keep over your sink edge while cutting. If you look at the firemans cutting board (allows a drain and catcher to hang over counter edge) you learn the value of the drain spout. However, for me I'd rather drain into the sink or a juice bowl (to add to gravy). Especially with a large turkey getting sliced!
I add this even though he sold the board. Seems there are many woodworking ideas of merit here. To me, the router solution is a mini surface router with alot of extra work!

 

[triangle]

I responded earlier about using epoxy, but I believe a "better" fix would be to use plunge router to cut out the missing block deeper, making a flat bottom hole. After first making a template to accept a pattern/template router bit to guide the cut. If using a 1/4" cutter there would be a small radius in the corners but I think with some thought a skilled wood worker could create both the negative and positive of a template to precisely cut a rounded corner square or rectangle that could be glued back into the newly cleared hole. The fix would be visible, but if using a similar species of wood would make the cutting board fully functional again.

All that said, I am glad @Jerry1 found a good home for it as it is.

 

[Involuntary Retiree]

This is non-responsive to the repair question, but we have a local woodworker/artisan (and it is art!) who creates the most beautiful cutting boards. Oh, my. Check it out: Mez Woodworks – Unique End Grain Cutting Boards, Individually Designed and Handcrafted

 

[zinger1457]

Like the old saying goes 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. Some of his boards look very good but most are way too busy for my taste, the one's he titles 'Chaos' are appropriately named. No doubt he's talented, I would imagine they aren't cheap either if he spends a minimum of 15 hours on each one.

 

[Involuntary Retiree]

Like the old saying goes 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. Some of his boards look very good but most are way too busy for my taste, the one's he titles 'Chaos' are appropriately named. No doubt he's talented, I would imagine they aren't cheap either if he spends a minimum of 15 hours on each one.

I also like less "busy" cutting boards, but I posted the link because of the artistry and the execution. My DD purchased one of these for my DH (her dad) for Fathers' Day a couple of years ago, and it was less than $400 at the time, and it is beautiful and super functional.

Sorry to hijack the thread.