For cutting board makers

End grain eats lumber. Your price should know.

Boards are the production line of a woodshop — batched for fall markets, priced against every other maker at the fair, and hungrier for lumber than they look. An end-grain board loses a third of its stock to kerf and squaring before the first glue-up cures. MadeKeeper prices each board from the lumber it actually consumed, not the blank that survived.

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How MadeKeeper maps to your glue bench

Maple and walnut, tracked apartHard maple at $7.80 a board foot and walnut at $12.50 are different bets. Each species logs at its price, and a board's recipe pulls from both stacks at once.

End-grain waste in the mathSet the waste factor end grain really runs — 30% is common once kerf and squaring take their cut — and the sawdust gets paid for by the board, not by you.

Batches for the fall rushA dozen boards glued up for the holiday markets log as a batch, each carrying its share. Load-out and count-back tell you what the weekend moved.

Oil, wax, and feet countedMineral oil, board butter, rubber feet, and the abrasives ladder — the finishing bench logs per board, so the last mile stops being a donation.

One end-grain board, to the penny

Say you glue up a maple-and-walnut end-grain board:

5 bf hard maple @ $7.80/bf, +30% waste$50.70
1.5 bf walnut accent @ $12.50/bf, +30% waste$24.38
Waterproof glue$2.60
Mineral oil and board wax$1.90
Rubber feet$1.10

True cost of the board$80.68

At $185 you keep $104.32 before fees — and now the maker two tables over selling end grain at $95 is a fact you can price around calmly, because you know what his lumber bill has to be.

For food-contact boards, MadeKeeper keeps your finish and materials records per piece — which oil went on which board is written down in the app, not remembered at the market.

Straight about what's live

Materials and true cost per piece, products (in bulk or one-of-a-kind), sales that drain stock, the was-this-fair-worth-it event math, mileage, expenses, and the year-end tax packet — all in the app today. Etsy and Square sync, your own storefront, a booth card reader, and shipping labels are building, shaped with founding makers. Nothing above describes a feature that doesn't exist without saying so. See the full live-vs-building list →

Questions cutting board makers ask

Why does end grain cost so much more than edge grain?

The crosscut-and-reglue step multiplies both labor and waste — a 30% loss factor is normal where an edge-grain board might run 20%. Cost both styles honestly in MadeKeeper and price the difference instead of absorbing it.

How do batches work for market season?

Glue up twelve boards, log the batch, and each board carries its share of lumber, glue, and finish. Load-out and count-back after each market show what sold — and the event math says whether the booth fee earned its keep.

What about offcut boards and seconds?

Small boards from offcuts can log their lumber at zero or salvage rate — your call, honestly either way. The board with the check you filled sells from a seconds tier, so it doesn't drag your first-quality margins down.

Ready to see your real numbers?

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