Free Plan: Mosaic Scrap Wood Cutting Board
Three wood species. A handful of offcuts. One board worth keeping.
Free download. No signup required.
- PDF plan
- Glue-up & finish guide
- Step-by-step instructions
✓ Your cutting board plan is downloading.
Download didn't start? Get the plan here.The board is drawn up. The second one comes out flatter, and this is why.
- A printed book on layout, cutting, joinery and finishing: how wood moves, how a glue-up stays flat, how a finish holds up. The part a plan leaves out.
- What to read first: the chapters on joinery and finishing. Three species in one board move three different ways, and mineral oil shows every ridge the sander missed.
- The publisher sends it at no charge and you cover the shipping. It ships to US addresses. On the order page there is a box for a trial membership that is already ticked. Untick it if you only want the book.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Scrap wood looks like trash in the shop. Glued up, it looks like something you'd give away as a gift.
This cutting board is built from hardwood offcuts — whatever you have left from other projects. Maple, walnut, cherry. Even a mix of two species works. The mosaic pattern comes from alternating the pieces during the glue-up. No two boards look the same.
I've made a dozen of these. The best one I kept. The others went to neighbors, kids' teachers, and one to my dentist.
Project at a Glance
- Difficulty
- Beginner to intermediate
- Main materials
- Hardwood scraps (maple, walnut, cherry), food-safe wood glue, mineral oil
- Build time
- 1 shop day, plus oil drying time
- Tools needed
- Table saw, miter saw, clamps, trim router, hand plane or belt sander
- Note
- Use Titebond III or another food-safe glue. Finish with mineral oil only — no varnish or lacquer on a cutting board.
From the shop
Go edge-grain instead of end-grain on your first board. End-grain looks better, but the glue-up is harder to get flat. Edge-grain cuts just as well, holds up just as long, and is much easier to sand flat after the clamps come off. Add a juice groove with a router bit if you want the extra touch — it takes ten minutes and makes the board look finished.
You came here for a cutting board plan. That gives you a giftable project you can finish in a day. But once you've made a couple, the next problem isn't another plan — it's technique. How different woods move. How glue-ups stay flat. How finishes actually hold up. That's why a real woodworking reference is the natural next step.
What the book actually covers
The part the plan leaves out
A plan tells you what to cut. It does not tell you why the glue-up cupped overnight, why the stain went blotchy on the end grain, or why the drawer that fit in July sticks in January. That is technique, and it is the same on every project. That is what stands between this cutting board and the one you keep.
The book covers layout, cutting, joinery and finishing in plain language, for a home shop with a few tools or a full one. It is a printed book, not a course, and it stays on the bench.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
Also worth a look: the next project, already drawn
Ted's Woodworking is a library of 16,000 plans, each with a cut list, measurements and step-by-step instructions. Furniture, shop jigs, outdoor builds, beginner to advanced. Sold through ClickBank, with a 60-day refund window stated on the vendor's page.
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