Challah Bread Board

An olive wood challah board with crushed turquoise inlay, crafted as a gift for my wonderful wife.

I sourced the wood from an eBay seller, designed the lettering in Illustrator, and carved the letters using my CNC. The inlay process, which I discovered online, involved the use of cyanoacrylate glue.

Tools used: Illustrator, Fusion 360, CNC A beautiful piece of olive wood I ordered from eBay, about 16" long by .75" deep.

A beautiful piece of olive wood I ordered from eBay, about 16" long by .75" deep. The inscription reads "Hamotzi lehem min haaretz" in Hebrew, it is a fragment of the blessing said over bread before every meal.

The inscription reads "Hamotzi lehem min haaretz" in Hebrew, it is a fragment of the blessing said over bread before every meal. CAM setup in Fusion 360

CAM setup in Fusion 360 Inscribing using my home made CNC router

Inscribing using my home made CNC router The finished inscription is a little inconsistent in depth due to the wood not being perfectly flat.  A planer would have come in handy.

The finished inscription is a little inconsistent in depth due to the wood not being perfectly flat. A planer would have come in handy. First course of inlay using crushed turquoise.  The crushed stone is piled into the engraved letters and soaked with extra liquid cyanoacrylate glue.  There are many great guides on YouTube on the process.

First course of inlay using crushed turquoise. The crushed stone is piled into the engraved letters and soaked with extra liquid cyanoacrylate glue. There are many great guides on YouTube on the process. Sanding down the first course of stone leaves lots of micro voids, to fix this I crushed the stone further using a mortal and pestle and repeated the inlay process.  This step is repeated one more time with stone crushed all the way to powder.

Sanding down the first course of stone leaves lots of micro voids, to fix this I crushed the stone further using a mortal and pestle and repeated the inlay process. This step is repeated one more time with stone crushed all the way to powder. Last application of stone in powder form to fill the last remaining voids.

Last application of stone in powder form to fill the last remaining voids. The finished challah board after finish sanding and a few coats of cutting board oil.

The finished challah board after finish sanding and a few coats of cutting board oil. The reverse side showing the gorgeous grain and live edge.

The reverse side showing the gorgeous grain and live edge. Closeup detail of the wood and turqoise.

Closeup detail of the wood and turqoise.