Firstly I am claiming no originality in this post.
Not sure what got me started on chopping board videos on You tube but I decided to give one a try.
This one gives the illusion of being basket woven using a mix of light and dark wood.
A mix of limited quantities of timber and a couple of visits from the naughty mischevious fairy gave me enough pieces to make these two boards.
I used ash and American black walnut doused with food safe mineral oil.
I felt the ash grain was a little too dominating so if I do any more end grain decorative stuff I'll look out for some sycamore or maple
They will make a couple of Christmas pressies.
Details on how to do it are here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RfA--IzZ9E
The drum sander was very useful when end-grain sanding the boards although if you only have access to a thicknesser then glue sacrificial scrap battens to the leading and trailing edge of each completed block and when thicknessed down to size, cut them off with the table saw..
Hope you like
Bob