Meat Cleaver charcuterie board (Halloween theme)

I was working on a kitchen counter with a large piece of black walnut live edge, and ended up with a short cut-off piece. I kept looking at it, but could not decide what to do with it, and came up with this idea. One of my grown kids is crazy about Halloween and they have this huge party every year, so I thought I would make them a serving board that has a Halloween theme. I saw that piece o live edge walnut in a whole new light… I ended up using the live edge part to look like the sharpened edge of a meat cleaver (well a sort of cartoonish, exaggerated meat cleaver). I got the shape from an image (thanks Google), and copied the proportions off that. I used the table router to put a double bevel on the “sharp edge”. Used some dowels in the handle, and then torched the handle before applying a food safe finish of bees wax and mineral oil.

The one thing I was disappointed with, was the way the brown came out in the walnut when I put the finish on. I would have rather kept the more metalic grey color the wood had when I was working it. I would love to hear if there is a better way I could have finished it (with a food safe finish that is), I would love to hear your opinions!

Thanks for looking!

-- Bill - in New Hampshire