A friend wanted to make a rolling pin and cutting board for his wife, but doesn’t have the tools, so he came over to my shop. I had enough scrap chunks of wood to laminate a blank that produced blanks for 5 rolling pins, and he brought enough maple and cherry to make a nice cutting board to match.

Laminate the boards in a steadily shifting pattern like this:

.———-

.  ———–

.     ———–

.        ————

etc. Then cut them at an angle.

The white oak section is the most difficult to turn; it really wants to chip out! As soon as it’s roughly rounded, switch from the roughing gouge to a narrow scraper (I used the end of an old file, ground square & sharp), then plenty of sandpaper to finish. The cherry and walnut turned smoothly.

For hardware, I bought a 6′ long, 1/4″ stainless steel bar, then 1/4″ID, 5/8″O/D bearings for about $7.50 each. Cutting your own threads 3/4″ on each end means each of the 3 bars costs about $3 instead of $15 for a pre-threaded rod. A 1/4″ fiber washer covers the bearing.

Turn the handles about 4-5″ long, and drill 2 stepped holes; the first is 1/4″ at 1.5″ deep, the next is 5/32″ at 2″ deep. Thread handles on by hand.

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