This is a walnut cutting board, with an inlay of cherry and maple. 19″x12″ and roughly 1.5″ thick. The hibiscus design was created in Adobe Illustrator based off tracing some images. Then I did a little bit of AI image generation to complete some of the fill in areas. AI is good to get ideas, but I spent a solid two days working on the design before I began anything in the shop.

I imported the design into Autodesk Fusion and used my VCarve Inlay Plugin to create the actual inlay designs. This allowed me to digitally experiment with different wood combinations to find something I liked. The plugin is handy to generate setups and toolpaths for carving out the design.

End grain cutting boards themselves are pretty labor intensive. You glue up a lot of strips of wood; wait for it to dry; cross cut them up into smaller slices; flip them end-grain up and glue them together. The end grain is a very durable surface for cutting on, and it takes a lot longer to sand and finish such a piece.

I made two of these boards as gifts for my family. Both are nearly identical, and are finished with “Walrus Oil” brand cutting board oil, along with a little wax on top.

I have digital files available to purchase if you are interested in making this design: Digital Files – Hibiscus Cutting Board for CNC