pig board

My grandma had an old pig cutting board that I always thought was cool so I thought I would make one too.

Found some black walnut for a good price at Rockler so I picked up 6 feet of it.

While it's not the perfect wood for a cutting board or butcher block due to it's slight porousness, it has a nice dark look that I like and can be used for veggies only.  

This specific piece had a very cool knot in one end that I decided I was going to use some how.  More on that in a sec.

I could have bought just enough for this board, but I have a few more ideas I want to try out so I just sprang for the whole thing.

Here is the shape I went with.  Simply cut it out with the jig saw, did some sanding around the edges to get everything squared up and smooth, then moved on to the knot.

I thought it would look cool to fill it with clear epoxy, so in the interest of doing what I want, that's what happened.  There was a syringe type epoxy shooter at Rockler that worked really well.  After filling it the first time and sanding it down, there were some little air bubbles on the top layer so I filled it in one more time to make sure it was perfectly smooth.  Since the epoxy wouldn't absorb oil like the wood would, I didn't want any holes in it where it could collect germs or crumbs.

Here's the backside.  After a little sanding and soldering my initials it's almost done.

Used some walnut oil to finish.  Turned out nice.  Next are guitar and beer mug boards.