Cutting boards are great woodworking projects for people of all levels. They can be as simple or complicated as you want, don't use up too much material, and they make great gifts.

Over the years I've made a dozen or so cutting boards for personal use, to give away as gifts, and to use for teaching introductory woodworking classes. I didn't think take photos of all of them, and I don't have any photos from when I was making any of them. But here are some of them after they were done and used.

End grain cutting boards are very durable, but difficult to get right. A lot of thought needs to go into orienting the wood grain so the board doesn't warp or crack. I tried several end grain cutting board patterns and settled on this offset asymmetrical pattern and the old-timey TV screen shape. I've made 5 or 6 boards with this pattern and the one of them cracked after some abusive use and constant washing.

Long grain boards are a bit easier to make and seem to survive longer. I have yet to find a pattern and shape that I like for these. I made one with a juice groove but it was a lot of work to get the groove right and in the end I didn't like having a juice groove on it.

Lately, I've come to like the simple rectangle with built in handles (3rd photo) but I'm not a fan of the pattern. I think I like the random/chaotic patterns much better, such as in the first two pictures.