wood working :: project idea

"psuedo hubby" does very dangerous work.  he lives on the edge.  he's that kinda guy.  one "hobby" he has is climbing very tall trees and cutting them down.  don't worry... he only cuts down the ones that are dying or about to fall on someone's home.  sometimes, he cuts down trees that are made of beautiful wood and someday, we will build a cabin with that wood.

until then, i like to come up with little projects for us to do.  he does the sawing and i do the sanding, staining, etc.

this time, "cousin b" came up with the idea and it was a wonderful one.  we made cutting boards and/or cheese trays.  they are pretty incredible i must say. 

here's how we did it:

• we found wood that had been drying out for a couple years
• "pseudo hubby" had it sliced up and then he sawed it into shorter pieces for us (see first pic)
• we sanded.  and sanded.  we even had an electric sander, but it still took forever.  one tip we learned the hard way was to wear a mask.  breathing sawdust isn't fun.
• "cousin b" made our finish out of mineral oil and beeswax so it's food friendly
• we smeared on the finish and let sit until it soaked into the wood a bit.  we then buffed off

that's it.  we did it all in a day.  but i was pretty tired when it was over.