A cutting board is a great project at any stage of your woodworking journey. You can make them as simple or as fancy as you want, in all sorts of shapes for different tasks. And they are small enough to make in batches as gifts.

Most cutting board designs combine strips of different woods into a sort of crazy quilt. But you’ll need a tablesaw to create those strips. We are going to go the elegantly simple route—taking a naturally beautiful piece of wood and bringing out its best. We’ll do that with gleaming curves and a real wood finish: a wipe-on oil that lets viewers see deep into the shimmering wood grain.

For this cutting board design you’ll need to add a tool to your growing arsenal: a small router, sometimes called a trim router or laminate trimmer. Like your other power tools, the router will…