Hickory End Grain Chopping Block Finished Post

Okay, new thing, there's going to be two posts on this chopping block. This one is just pictures and general description, the other will be a step-by-step of it how it was made.

This is an end-grain up chopping block made from hickory, which is a damn hard wood. It has a generally uniform brown color, but can have some interesting variation. This block, which  I made from one single 7" ten-footer, showed some dark brown speckling. You can see it in some of the pictures.

FYI I chopped the carrots and shallot (gourmet!) on a different cutting board and just set them here for pictures

I've made end grain chopping blocks before, but this has a few twists. Well, basically, it has three things that I haven't done before. First, I put it up on feet. You can slide something under the board and then just brush chopped food onto it. That's handy.

Fancy

Also, I embedded a rare earth magnet in one corner that can help hold the knife in place so it doesn't slide off by accident, no doubt plummeting to the ground and severing a toe (or damaging your knife, or whatever bad consequence you feel like inserting here).

It's strong enough to hold the knife like so

Just kind of demonstrating with a steel ruler on the unfinished board

And lastly, I burned a design that the client wanted with a pyrography pen.

The board was heavy (like 17+ lbs heavy), but it got to its destination care of the USPS for Christmas. Let me know if you want one.