I'm pretty familiar with edge joining boards of the same width to make a panel (for a table top, cabinet door, or whatever) but I've never done a project where I also need to end join short boards, and I'm a little unsure of what order I should do the gluing in. Basically, I found several fairly short pieces of african rosewood at a great deal, and I'd like to make a desk top out of them. I'd like the desk to be 5 feet long, but most of the pieces of wood are 2.5-3 feet long.
Do I first need to end join each board to get the overall 5' that I want, then glue those as I would any other panel? Or should I glue different length boards to the width I want, with uneven ends, and then keep gluing those until I get the length I'm looking for?
For reference, this is what I'm talking about: