CityView Magazine

30 | July/August 2019 "It's the kind of plane they used in ship-building, with an iron sole that adjusts for either concave or convex cutting." Its ancient sole curves like a supple fishing rod with only a few turns of the adjusting screw, going from a straight edge to a delicate Bézier curve. With a few air swipes, Ray shows how a shipbuilder might plane the sides of a vessel. Ray is modest about what he achieves with wood. In an understatement, his calling card simply states, "Works in Wood." But he says he doesn't consider it work because there's no pressure. Indeed, he receives much in return, just in the act of creating cutting boards. Of the hundreds that he's made over the years, he says, "Every single one taught me something new." He starts each one by finding the right wood. He points to neat stacks of different colored planks, short and long, which are housed in separate cubicles, each hand-labeled with names like Zebra, Spalted Maple, Purpleheart, Yellow Heart, Tiger Maple and more. "Each type of wood, requires a different treatment," he says, "because each behaves differently to the other." Some woods repel oil, some woods are harder to plane, some come off the line as if they'd already been sanded. "Every board I make is unique and there's a new lesson to learn. Sometimes it won't hold glue well!" he says with a smile. He then pats the Bubinga, as one would pat the head of an errant child. en comes the choice of end grain versus face grain. When the end grain is exposed on a cutting board, it shows the wonderful growth lines of the tree and consequently Ray is able to play with the concentric circles (or quarter circles) to create spectacular patterns. Conversely, with the face grain, all the veins and long markings created by

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