I’m making a couple of cutting boards for a friend to give as gifts. He wants to inlay a monogram initial into one board and some names into the other board
I was planning to make end grain cutting boards but I’m unsure how well the carve would work in end grain. Has anyone done this? Are there potential issues with doing this?
Jerald
I’ve not done this but the only issue that comes to mind is gluing. Normally we have plenty of edge grain bonding to edge grain. In the instance of end grain you wouldn’t have as good adhesion. The advice I’d give to mitigate this issue would be to use a 60 degree or narrower V-bit to expose more edge grain in the base board.
This advice is just informed speculation.
If you gain some wisdom from this project
then please come back and educate us all!
On Sun, Sep 29, 2024 at 4:25 PM Jerald Pratt jerpratt@gmail.com wrote:
What about also running a deeper/thicker inlay also?
in general, yes, but there are nuances.
If your design is a single line profile cut then you’ll need to adjust depth. Profile cuts define depth so regardless of the v-bit chosen, depth would be the same.
If your design is a vcarve in a pocket then depth will come by virtue of a narrower bit. That is, a 90 degree bit will be a more shallow pocket than a 60 degree bit. However, since we need to be concerned with going through material, we often set a max depth. If you’re using a max depth then you’re back to the scenario above. While a deeper pocket would help it’s only from more surface area of gluing for adhesion but it’s still against end grain.
Good luck! Travis
Jerald,
End grain with inlay is common. Bear in mind the inlay will be fragile until actually inlayed.
As Travis mentioned a deeper cut would give a better glue surface. I recommend a 30 degree bit plus set the depth a bit more .3 should be fine.
One real important thing is that the inlay is also end grain.
Dense wood ( ie walnut , maple) with a tight grain.
Hope you’ll post a pic when you finish.
Best,
Ian
