A client reached out looking for an end grain white oak cutting board, and it was a natural fit for the shop. He and his wife both love to cook, so a good board was already on their list. The catch was height. He's about 6'6" and she's about 5'6", and he was tired of hunching over the counter every time he chopped something. Could we add legs to the board so it sat at a better height for him?
We took that idea and ran with it, just not in the way he pictured. Instead of building legs into the board, we made a separate frame that lifts the board about 3 inches off the counter. The board also comes out of the frame and sits directly on the counter whenever you want it there. Cutting board feet on the bottom of the board slot into cutouts in the frame, so it locks in while it's up on the base. That way they can share one board and just pick the height for whoever is that night’s sous chef.
End grain boards are built with the wood standing on its end, so the cutting surface is the ends of the grain. The work starts by milling the white oak down to size and gluing it up. The blocks then get laid out in a grid so the grain runs the same direction on every piece. The board took about a week from start to finish, and that was quicker than it could have been because we already had the wood on hand. Most of the time went into glue-up, surfacing, and fitting the pieces together.
The tricky part was getting the frame and the cutting board feet to line up. If the feet are even a little off, the board rocks on the frame, and nobody wants a board that rocks while they're chopping. Every cutout has to match its foot so the board and the base act like a single piece when it's in use.
If you want a cutting board built for how you actually cook, including a height that works for the people who use it, reach out with your project idea. Custom work is what we do, and we'd be glad to talk through what you need.
