Need help with cutting board with carving

[Tom Jones III]

SWMBO saw the attached cutting board in a Williams Sonoma catalog and she asked that I make two for fathers day (one for my Dad and one for hers). My parents have a lot of hickory in their house and I had some on hand so I made two elliptical cutting boards and routed out the elliptical groove for the juice. I was about to setup the router template for the initial in the middle when she told me that she wanted it hand carved. Well, this isn't really a problem, I'm not a good carver but I can handle a single letter, but this is hickory!

Should I try to hand carve on hickory or make new cutting boards in some other wood? What wood do you suggest that would work well for both a cutting board and hand carving?

[Lee Koepke]

Do you think an explanation that using your router is traditionally 'hand-made' not production shop CNC made?

Even though I use templates and routers for stuff, I rarely get a 'perfect' cut, those imperfections show its hand made?

Most of my cutting boards have been maple, cherry, walnut, so none of those are a whole lot 'softer' than hickory.....

[Jason Hallowell]

If it's a good wood for use as a cutting board, it's not going to be pleasant to carve. I'd suggest getting your carving chisels really really sharp before you start, and re-sharpening often.

[Joe Chritz]

Route it with the template and do a little work with the carving chisels. Essentially you are just removing most of the waste with the router and finishing up by hand.

If the hand carved look is what you are after this seems like a perfect fix.

Fight smarter not harder.

Joe

[Tom Jones III]

Her complaint with the router template is that the letters are a little bit rounded, a little "cartoonish" which is fine for many signs but she wants a more classic look. I think I'll give it a test run on scrap and see how bad it is to carve. I also like the idea of using the router to remove some of the waste and then finish up with hand tools. Perhaps I can get a V shaped router bit to get it even closer to a hand carved look.