How can I make this cutting board

[Wade Lippman]

I apologize for the picture. My printer/scanner died yesterday and my wife's barely works.
blade.jpg
It is intended to look like a hatchet oar.
BB55swp_bladeBLU_wL[1].jpg
except for obvious reasons the oar blade will be flat, perhaps an inch thick. It will be 7" by 14".
I am having problems figuring out how to make the oar shaft; the 4" rectangle on the right side of my drawing. It has to be rounded; while the rest will be flat. I don't see any way to do that on a router, as the transition will look terrible.
The three ideas I have are:
1) Use a 2" thick piece of wood, turn the shaft on a lathe, and then cut the piece to 1" thick so I have a half round. I am not sure how good a handle that will make for the cutting board though; I picture it just sort of rounded on the sides, so it is more like a half oval.
2) run the cutting board pieces the short way instead of the long way. Then I could make my shaft on a router separately and then glue it on to the blade; it will be long grain to long grain, so the joint should be good. But that has me routing end grain which can be a problem, and it has the handle with the grain running the wrong direction, which will be weak. (any wood with really strong end grain)
3) Make the board normally and make the handle separately with the grain running the same direction, and glue them together. It will be end grain to end grain, but if I throw a domino in it might be okay.

So, what do you think?

[Yonak Hawkins]

For me, the fastest, easiest way would be to cut it out straight then whittle, file and sand it half round.

[Wade Lippman]

For me, the fastest, easiest way would be to cut it out straight then whittle, file and sand it half round.

Do it by hand!? Outrageous. But you might be right; its only 4".

[Wayne Lomman]

I agree with Yonak. Do it by hand. Cheers

[Andy Giddings]

If the cutting board and handle of the oar are going to be a similar thickness I would make the board using the normal process, bore a hole in the side and mount a dowel. You could use different material for the handle (maybe maple for the handle and walnut for the board?) and even shape the board on its edges to make it look more like an oar.

If the handle needs to be thicker than the oar as per the photo, you could use the same process, but carefully plane the board evenly on both sides till its thinner than the handle, then put a shallow chamfer on the two exposed ends of the handle that are mounted in the board before gluing the handle in place.

You could also mount the handle in the board and then plane the board thinner than the handle, but chamfer the handle along its length to blend the joint.

[Keith Westfall]

Make the board, and then cut a tapered slot the end to fit the handle. Make the handle however works/looks good to you, and then taper the end to fit into the board. With contrasting wood, it would give the appearance of the "handle bump" in the original picture.

[Wade Lippman]

It came out pretty decent.
oar.jpg

I rounded over as much as I could and then used a 1/2" belt sander to finish.
I tried staining the handle, but it looked terrible.
It would have been better had I used a larger radius round over bit, but that's learning.

[Roger Feeley]

If you want alternating wood strips, make the one with the handle separately and turn the round part.