Resin-Inlay Cutting Board — Build Plan (#21)

Build the smart blend: a real, thick hardwood cutting board where the colour comes from a shallow routed design filled with epoxy — a leaf branch, waves, a monogram, a geometric line — using about one-fifth the epoxy of a full river pour. This 5-page PDF plan (Build Plan No. 21 in the Fox Feather Farms winter series) makes the 16 x 11 in (40.6 x 28 cm) board, 1.5 in (38 mm) thick, from five strips of walnut, hard maple, or cherry — dense, closed-pore species, because open-pore oak halos and bleeds.

Inside: a dimensioned layout diagram, a cut list (strips, the inlay groove at 3/8–1/2 in wide and 1/4 in deep, and an optional juice groove for the reverse), the epoxy math (about 150–200 ml including overfill), a full materials list with per-line costs in Canadian dollars (about $68 typical), the tools required, finishes and cure times, and a 6-step build summary. The anti-halo step is called out — seal the groove with a thin epoxy wash before the pour — and the board's two faces have two jobs: serve and display on the inlay face, cut on the plain reverse so knives stay off the resin. Three to four stock designs rout from reusable templates, detailed in the builder's notes. About 3.5–4.5 hours of active work per board, plus glue, epoxy, and oil cure time.