cutting board class #2

tonight we had our second and final class with pete raho of gowanus furniture to complete our walnut-cherry-maple morse code cutting boards. with an hour to spare before the 7pm class, we opted to explore gowanus a bit and ended up at a local bakery and cafe, four & twenty blackbirds. it was at the corner of 3rd ave and 8th street, just a couple blocks from the fourth ave F train station and steps from makeville studios.

the cafe was large and reminded me of places we've gone to in LA ~ high ceilings, generous tables and space, and lit up with macbook screens. i had a serious problem when it came to ordering because the pie descriptions sounded so delicious! i ended up ordering the sweet potato apple crumble with fresh whip on the side because i was in the mood for buttery crumble :) and actually it turns out that the crumble was largely made from oats, so not too unhealthy after all.

next time i want to try the salty honey (that one only had ONE slice left so it MUST be good), grapefruit custard (because a citrus custard just sounds interesting), and the bittersweet chocolate pecan. it's going to be a cake party next time!

when we arrived to shop, our beautiful boards were waiting for us, having been cleaned of the excess glue and planed (thanks pete). during our second class, we would have far more autonomy and shop tasks to do in order to complete our board. they included: drilling the wall-mounting holes; rounding over the edges of the board and mounting holes with the palm router; creating the handholds; sanding corners; and applying the finish.

pete demonstrated how to use a number of pieces of equipment including: the drill (to make the wall-mounting holes), palm router (to round over the edges), router table (to create the handholds), and the orbital sander (to sand the corners). it felt a bit as if we were being transported back to the high school wood shop again! pete stressed the importance of safety when using the tools, which was helpful, and we got to work.

at the end of the night, when we were satisfied with the shape and smoothness of our boards, we applied the hot oil and wax finish, which also left our hands feeling silky smooth. how do i get a bottle of that stuff? :) we left the boards to dry and will return to pick them up in a week or so. yay. it's been an awesome way to spend two friday nights so far, and can't wait to tell our friends about the class and the awesome instructor!