# Finishing a butcher block counter top



## ChrisZA (Aug 22, 2012)

Good day all

I've taken on quite an interesting challenge to complement our work-progress-kitchen. A friend of mine who works in the meat business imported butcher's blocks from America tens of years ago but South African legislation changed to disallow wood blocks to be used in commercial meat processing so he has had these sitting around for a while now and said I could take one to use if I wanted it.










As there are a lot of Americans who read this site, I'd appreciate any insight into what wood the block may be as we honestly have no idea. This is a picture of one of the pieces showing a sanded vs unsanded finish.










And a picture of the pieces of wood drying in my garage before being used.










I know there is general animosity towards using wood as a countertop however I am willing to whether the general pampering required as this specific countertop is mostly for resting things on and very little for general food preparation. That will go on the island with a stone top.

The butcher's block I received was 1000x610x400 mm without legs and I proceeded to have this cut into 60 mm thick slabs at a local sawmill. Unfortunately they didn't have the facilities to plane or sand the surface for me so its just me and my orbital sander working on it.

1) What type of wood is this? I have an idea but would prefer not to colour anyone's opinion. The wood is very light with brown grain and colours to a light yellow when washed with turpentine. It is very hard considering that it takes roughly one hour to get a quarter of one of the sides smooth with 60 grit sandpaper and the orbital sander. Very little further sanding is required to get it baby-bottom smooth other than to remove the few scuff marks from the 60 grit paper. There are numerous cracks without, mostly very small, that I hope to seal with mineral oil/beeswax.

2) In terms of finishing the counter top, I have read mention on here of using a poured epoxy resin to get a bar top finish that will look good but won't hold up to knives. Alternatively, mineral oil layers with a final 1-2 layers of mineral oil and beeswax combined to seal off the surface. Alternatively to that, Tung oil though this is not readily available. I'm not scared of experimenting however I don't have any scrap of this wood to play around with before applying the finishing.

3) As this block was very old (30-40 years), there are numerous large cracks in the top piece as well as a lot of knots and crevices in the slabs that I would like to fill. A lot of sources online have mentioned that either polyester or epoxy resin can be used to fill the cracks and holes before being sanded down flat. I want to fill the voids with a clear mixture that will shows the original state of the wood but not have gaps in it. Additionally, if using either polyester resin or epoxy resin, can I still apply mineral oil or tung oil to the surface or will this interfere with the fully-cured resin?

Thanks in advance


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Your pictures didn't come through so I can't guess the wood. 

Unless you surface quite a bit of wood off the surface you won't be able to put a pour on epoxy over the top. Because of the oils in the wood it won't stick. You would have to get down to new wood for that application. Sanding won't do it. Sanding will just rub the oils in further. It would take a machine like a planer to remove the oiled wood. Tung oil wouldn't bond either. You could use mineral oil and or beeswax. 

As far as filling the cracks you would have the same adhesion problems with the filler because oils are in the crevases. If they are minor you might fill them with Minwax Wood Filler. It really never hardens and can be applied over and over as needed should some come out. If the crack is wide you might have to take a circular saw and expose some new wood for a filler to bond to. You can use mineral oil or tung oil over a polyester resin without harming it.


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## ChrisZA (Aug 22, 2012)

Steve, as these slabs were cut from the original block I would presume there is no oil there to begin with other than what is naturally found in the wood? Sanding this further won't expose "new" wood per se as it is all "new" wood except for the edges. As far as I can see, this wood hasn't been treated at all while being used.

Weird that the images didn't come through. At the risk of having to get an admin to change the image links, here they are from a different hosting platform.

Butcher Blocks










Sanded vs Unsanded Piece










Pieces drying in my garage.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

It looks like endgrain Maple. It should be pretty heavy. As for filling the cracks, the grain is likely saturated with oil. Could you use them as is, the way you've surfaced them?



















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## ChrisZA (Aug 22, 2012)

Thanks for the feedback so far steve and cabinetman.

It took 4 guys to lift the whole thing into the back of the truck so yeah pretty heavy.

I'm sure I could use them as is but it wouldn't be ideal. My main concern is the top piece and sealing the sides properly.




























How would I check if the grain is soaked with oil and if so, is there a reasonable way to de-oil it or am I better off just going with mineral oil/beeswax instead of potentially messing it up with tung oil and/or a resin filler?

Would something like a glue/sanding dust putty mix work on those gaps instead of resin?


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

If the blocks were used in a meat market then there would be oils from the meat even if nobody treated them with mineral oil. I don't think anyone would use them without oiling them with something. I guess the size of them lets out running them through a planer. You might build a cradle and machine the top off with a router and then sand it.

Glue and sanding dust would make a good filler but the gap would have to be free of any oil.


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## ChrisZA (Aug 22, 2012)

Good point Steve. Yup you are correct there is no option for planing it down anywhere near to me if at all in this country.

Any ideas on how to get the oil out of the gaps/cracks to a decent depth to allow glue to adhere?


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

ChrisZA said:


> Good point Steve. Yup you are correct there is no option for planing it down anywhere near to me if at all in this country.
> 
> Any ideas on how to get the oil out of the gaps/cracks to a decent depth to allow glue to adhere?


 The only thing I can think of is to run a circular saw through the gap and cut some of the existing wood out of the crevase. It wouldn't have to be very much but it needs some fresh new wood for the filler to bond to. The glue in the filler needs to soak into the fibers of the wood and if the fibers are filled with oils it will just sit on the surface and eventually come out.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

Being end grain BB, it's likely that oils have permeated the wood very deep and getting to uncontaminated wood might not be possible for glue or epoxy to stick. Just my opinion.


















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## Bob the Painter (Jan 24, 2012)

I have heard that if you use it for cutting, just wax it, but I think you should look into sterile conditions, maybe there is some info. I know that the best advice a guy who makes wooden countertops is to stain them and use a great poly...I know somebody with an island who wants me to refinish and I concluded the thing to do is make them some cutting boards and stain them to match and put them on the countertops with he idea that it will get abused.


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