About Big Boards Woodworking

Big Boards is a small woodworking shop turning out heirloom-quality cutting boards, cheese platters, and serving pieces — one piece at a time, by hand.

Our craft

Every Big Boards piece starts as rough hardwood lumber: maple, walnut, cherry, padauk, purpleheart, and other domestic species. We hand-select each strip, run them through the jointer and planer until they're flat and true, then glue them up in vertical layers to expose the rich striped pattern you see in every finished piece.

After the glue cures, every board is sanded through multiple grits, the edges chamfered, and a juice groove routed where appropriate. We finish every piece with food-safe mineral oil and beeswax — never lacquer, polyurethane, or anything that would compromise the surface for kitchen use.

Why hardwoods, layered vertically

Layering different wood species isn't just for the look. Each species brings its own character: hard maple is bright and dense, walnut is rich and forgiving, cherry warms with age, padauk and purpleheart bring color that doesn't fade. Together they make a piece that's beautiful to look at and built to outlast a lifetime of dinners.

Built to last generations

A well-made cutting board, oiled and treated with care, will outlive the kitchen it sits in. We build every piece with that timeline in mind — heavy, flat, square, finished cleanly. The kind of piece you hand down.

— Big Boards Woodworking