As I stated yesterday, we celebrate Thanksgiving this week here in the the United States. And, after that, we move into the other holidays of the season that lead to feasting. And, you bet, I’m planning on spending some time in my kitchen this coming month.

Which means, it’s time to start getting some items in the kitchen back into shape. First up, this cutting board I had made a few years ago. It was a proof-of-concept build I had made before batching out a few boards for the holidays, and I haven’t had the heart to do away with it…

But, as you can see, it’s all knife scarred, dried out and ready for a little bit of love. So, out to the shop it went. Since the boys have been talking about all of the delicious food they plan on eating, I had to put them to work in the shop doing the hard work.  Steven had the job doing the sanding on the cutting board and oiling it up.

With a 100-grit pad on the random orbit sander, the young fella proceeded to sand out all of the knife scars on the board. It wasn’t too tough, but he enjoyed using the sander, bringing the board from its rough state down to as smooth as the day it rolled out of the shop.

The next step was to wipe on a heavy coat of mineral oil. Steven spent a good time wiping the oil into the board, ensuring it soaked evenly into the wood, making it look like a million bucks.

Dominic, well, he had another important job. With all of the chopping, slicing and mincing that has to happen with the holiday feasts, it was critical to sharpen the knives. Fortunately, it was an easy task with the Tormek sharpener.

Dom first graded the stone to the rough setting before he put the knives into the jig to do the sharpening. This ensured that the stone was set for coarse sharpening, stripping the old metal shavings out of the surface of the water stone.  A quick clamp into the jig, and the boy was busy regrinding the bevel on the knives. It was a piece of cake for the young fella…

After coarse, then fine, grinding, Dom loaded up the strop wheel with some honing compound, then ran both sides of each edge over the strop wheel.

You know when you have a really sweet edge on your knife when you can just cleanly slice it through a sheet of paper with just the slightest bit of pressure. You should have seen Dominic’s eyes when he did this little trick… he was amazed.

Now, with everything tuned up, the boys have gotten everything into shape for the big holiday feasts to come.

I guess this means that I’m on the hook now, doesn’t it?