French Bread Board

[mic-d]

I was reminded by another post that a French bread board has been on my list of things to do for some time, so with a spare afternoon and spare radiata pine panels and oak sitting around, today was the day. I know little about how far back the design goes but I think it's at least into the 18th century. These boards were originally used as a tray upon which bread dough was rested ( or is it called leavened?). Generally two or three panels of pine were locked together with a couple of tapered sliding dovetail keys. I marked out the shape on two panels of pine and cut it out on the bandsaw. That's the end of the power tools. With the two panels clamped together on my bench I marked out a pair of tapered sliding dovetail trenches and knifed the lines to act as a guide for the tenon saw. Then simply eyeballing an angle I cut the sides of the trenches with a tenon saw. Most of the waste was removed with a chisel and the last shavings were taken out with a router plane. Then I made the oak keys with a hand plane. These were driven home which locks everything together - no glue. Very satisfying to have a bunch of fine shavings all over the floor and bench! Tomorrow it will get the first of several coats of mineral oil.

[A Duke]

Nice one.
Regards

[Wongo]

Very nice

[Robson Valley]

That's a museum grade replica. They look for such things. Beautiful result.
I'm pleased to see that you have used the sorts of woods which would have
been available centuries ago.

Leavening and proofing are one thing, the loaves are often "rested" after make-up
to allow the gluten net to relax a little before going into the oven.
French bread 'boules' (aka loaf of bread with no fat in it) are normally
round as produced in artisan bakeries.
So far, any attempts of mine qualify for the Olympic discus event.
I can make all sorts of bready things, just a bowl and a stick for mixing
and the usual pans for baking. Herbed baguettes are my big hit
Boules are premiere league to me.

[mic-d]

Thanks for the positive comments guys.

[Trav]

Really nice work. Thanks for sharing.

Trav

[mic-d]

Thanks Trav. Had so much fun making it I decided to make another 6 rectangular ones for Chrissy presents from more recycled radiata and oak. Making pairs end-to- end which I'll separate when the keys are fitted. All the slots are cut and two pair of keys are installed.

[Robson Valley]

I'm serious, not gratuitous. Those are museum grade replications of early and practical wood work.
I recommend that you sniff around. While pictures/engravings/woodcuts abound, the real woodwork is in very scarce supply to demonstrate, by example, what the wood work looked like..

Local example.
My brother hangs with a gang who build replica stone age hunting gear. Bro' does the arrow shafts and fletching. Two others are flint knapping freaks ("and from which period would you like your arrow heads to look like?"). Forbes cuts the bow stock from Fraxinus (ash) logs and they all labor to build the bow. $3 kilobucks for a bow and 3 arrows, just as fast as they can crank them out.
NO POWER TOOLS, some stone scrapers.

Please excuse me for calling them simply bread boards. They are the real deal. I'd have one if I could afford it. Simply for the long forgotten but clever, clever method of assembly. I would take enormous pride in serving my breads on one of those.

[mic-d]

Robson, you understand that the first two images in my post were originals not my work yep? Perhaps Canada is more culturally enlightened than Australia, but I can't imagine that an Australian museum would have any interest in these things. I'm happy to be proven wrong however... But thanks for your kind words anyway

[burraboy]

Just the thing for French Toast?

[tea lady]

Beautifll I love things held together with keys and no glue.

[mic-d]

A couple of evenings after work and they are finished, spent the afternoon massaging in oil and thinking Zen thoughts. That's Christmas for me sorted!

[artme]

Good stuphph Mic!!!

I'm rather fond of French bread.

[burraboy]

I'm quite taken with that design and may well attempt it myself. Thinking about the details, I can see why the dovetail keys should be skew to each other rather than parallel. It doesn't look like it in the pics, but did you skew them?

[enelef]

Really nice work