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Question about laminating different wood

Started by elitts, May 14, 2020, 09:54:20 AM

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elitts

I'm working on cutting board options for my mother who has degenerative issues with her thumbs that has resulted in low grip strength.  This means that her old solid maple cutting board isn't usable anymore because she can't grip it tight enough to carry it.

My first solution was a solid wood board made from Paulownia (Kiri) because it's apparently popular for this purpose in Japan.  Unfortunately, I suspect that this isn't going to hold up well at all when combined with the kind of hacking/sawing that goes on at my parent's house. (as opposed to the style of cutting done by pros trying to save their knife edges)

So now I'm considering finding a harder wood with similar dimensional stability to Paulownia and laminating 1/4" or 3/8" boards over my 1" of Paulownia.  Unfortunately I'm just barely getting into actual woodworking (as opposed to rough construction) and I don't know enough about wood movement and joinery to know whether this is:


  • A fool's errand;
  • Difficult but worth trying;
  • Done all the time and I'm just unaware of it.

Advice?

Don P

Don't know much about laminating in that particular way but it'll hold up at least for awhile. cutting boards are a great place to experiment, the culls usually clear the door on the woodstove just fine :D.
I was washing off a white pine board that has to be 5 years old this morning. It is less than 1/2" thick, a foot wide and about 18" long. She needed a board with a spike in it one day for shelling corn and I had that handy and grabbed it. It got pressed into service and I'm amazed its still around. There are a number of 1/2" thick hardwood boards for sammich and bread type slicing then some heavier boards for workin out. I've made a number by gluing up mixed strips of wood and they seem to hold up fine.

low_48

I'm voting fools errand. As suggested on Sawmill Creek, unbalanced construction will be fighting known rules of woodworking. Plywood always has odd numbers of plys. This produces balanced stresses on both sides. On laminating solid lumber, the norm is to have a mix of flat sawn, rift, and quarter sawn. This makes for complicated calculations about wood movement across a lamination. Gluing one layer of hardwood really complicates the calculations and starts heading towards near certain issues. If you are insistent on doing this, just do it. What's the worst that can happen? It cups and splits. You aren't dealing with hundreds of dollars of lumber here. Also to address her degenerative thumb problem, add some rod style door hardware to the board so she doesn't have to use her thumbs to lift the board.

WV Sawmiller

   Methinks thou doth overthink this problem! If this is for utility use why not just plane a good clear 12" wide hardwood board down to about 1/2" and use it unfinished as a cutting board?


 This is a 12" X 21" X 1/2"  ash board I planed smooth for my wife years ago for her to use as a cutting board. It is light weight so your mom can carry it easily. We have probably cut up a dozen deer and hundreds of catfish on this one since I made it. I see it has a little cup but nothing to hinder usage.

   I recently cut a 15' ash with some spalting and I cut 5-6 12" wide boards about 5/8" thick thinking I may make some more cutting boards like this and see if they will sell at our local flea markets and such.

   My experience with Paulonia is it is super soft and I sure would not use it for cutting boards unless I was going to epoxy the heck out of the top. 
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

dougtrr2

Could you just cut a handhold in her existing board?  

Doug in SW IA

bluthum

Yeah, I agree with those who don't like the idea of laminating you proposed. I'd bet it would cup big time before failing.

Years ago I made countless laminated cutting boards using many species of hardwoods ripped to 3/4 x 1 and etc to sell. They looked nice. None the less the 2 cutting boards I use  are, a 18" long piece of a pine 2x12 [former floor joist] and a little 5/8 thick scrap of vertical sawn douglas fir left over from something. They've served for years with no end in sight.

My point is it doesn't take anything fancy to do the job. I might suggest you go ahead and use the pawlonia or  basswood or what ever you have that makes the light weight criteria. Replace it if it ever needs it. I also think you might  consider the hand hold suggestion. 

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