End Grain Countertop Finish

[shanegrilah]

First attempt at an end grain countertop for my kitchen. Size is about 17" X 42".

Thought I'd ask the group for their opinions on finishes. I'm thinking of some sort of oil (maybe boiled linseed) to make the colors pop a little more then clear bar top epoxy. It is not intended to be used as a cutting board. My only reservation with the bar top epoxy is that a wall oven will be adjacent to where it will be installed so at some time it might have a +400 Deg. F dish rested on it without thought to consequences. Not sure how the epoxy would handle the heat.

Any suggestions or experience from the group?

Thanks,
Shane

 

[HarveyWildes]

Nice work!

If you use oil, consider putting on quite a few coats.  I did a bathroom counter with about 20-25 coats of a wet-sanded poly/oil mix. and it is pretty waterproof.  Of course it takes a month or two to finish it at that rate .  Looks like one of the woods is very open pore (ash, oak?), might take a while to seal them with just wet sanding oil.  I was sealing African Mahogany, which has a medium pore size.

I have small granddaughters who brush their teeth and wash their hands in that bathroom.  They leave water sitting on the top, and it handles it fine.

Seems to me like kitchen use might be a little more demanding than bathroom use though.

 

[Stephen B]

I would end the finish at the oil, great look, acquires a great patina with age and use; cleans up well in use and easy to repair compared to Varnish/Epoxy finishes.

As an alternative to linseed oil and the many coats required, consider Festool oil or a preprioty Kitchen Benctop oil finish.

Great crafting there!

 

[HarveyWildes]

I would end the finish at the oil, great look, acquires a great patina with age and use; cleans up well in use and easy to repair compared to Varnish/Epoxy finishes.

As an alternative to linseed oil and the many coats required, consider Festool oil or Kitchen Benctop oil finishes such as FestonWatson.

Great crafting there!

@UntidyShop - Agreed on the advantages of oils.  Do the oils that you mentioned do a better job of sealing the wood?  I've never used either of them.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Don’t have any good advise but just wanted to congratulate you on the spectacular result. This is one of the best examples I’ve seen. Very consistent grain orientation and color choices and very fine joinery.

 

[Cheese]

Nice...nice stuff. Like Michael said, nice consistency across the surface. [thumbs up]

As far as epoxy goes, the West 207/105 combination I recently used is not heat friendly. It looks real nice and protects the countertop from moisture, but heat is not its friend.

Here are a couple of shots of a white oak countertop I just finished with a 2mm coating of West 207/105. The colors pop real nice and there's a high degree of depth.

 

[Stephen B]

[size=10pt]

I would end the finish at the oil, great look, acquires a great patina with age and use; cleans up well in use and easy to repair compared to Varnish/Epoxy finishes.

As an alternative to linseed oil and the many coats required, consider Festool oil or Kitchen Benctop oil finishes such as FestonWatson.

Great crafting there!

@UntidyShop - Agreed on the advantages of oils.  Do the oils that you mentioned do a better job of sealing the wood?  I've never used either of them.

[size=13pt]
[member=61231]HarveyWildes[/member]
Hi,

Since I posted I have realised that FeastWatson may not be available in NA as it is a Dulux Company. Their Kitchen oil has received great customer satisfaction in the Hardware Store in which I work.

The benchtop below, of which I posted details in past FOG  threads back in 2014/15 served well in a Kitchen until last year when we sold it and the house. It was finished with Organoil Hard Burninshing Oil, using the same methods recommended by Festool for their oils. Organoil is an Australian Company. It exports, last I heard, to NA, but may not be readily available. I only mentioned Festool oil because it is available in NA. I am sure there are other similar Oils to FeastWatson Kitchen Oil and Organoil in NA.
http://www.timberbits.com/brand/org...MI6aCd0NHf2gIVnAcqCh2f0QokEAAYASAAEgJYHfD_BwE
http://festoolownersgroup.com/festool-tools-accessories/experiences-with-the-surfix-oils/


[attachimg=1]

_______________________

[size=8pt]
The Dulux decorative paint business in the United States was sold to the Pittsburgh Paints division of PPG Industries in December 2012.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulux#Dulux_in_Australia_and_New_Zealand

 

[shanegrilah]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the compliments, links and suggestions so far, keep the suggestions coming. I'll do some searching for what is available.

[member=61231]HarveyWildes[/member] What brand poly/oil did you use?

[member=44099]Cheese[/member] Nice job on your countertop. That is epoxy only? Also, thanks for the purchase of your pot filler. Fairly certain I recognize it as I work in a faucet engineering.

Regards,
Shane

 

[Cheese]

[member=44099]Cheese[/member] Nice job on your countertop. That is epoxy only? Also, thanks for the purchase of your pot filler. Fairly certain I recognize it as I work in a faucet engineering.

Thanks...That is 4 coats of General Finishes clear poly followed up with the West 207/105 epoxy. The 206/105 combo dries darker and yellower.

Ya, I contacted Kohler and asked some questions about using their Karbon faucet as a pot filler and they stated that using it for that purpose, would void the warranty.  [eek]  Well, none of their customer service replies made any sense to me so, I just went forth with the install and 3 years later, I couldn't be happier. I just needed to change out to the Karbon high flow service valve.

 

[Sparktrician]

Here are a couple of shots of a white oak countertop I just finished with a 2mm coating of West 207/105. The colors pop real nice and there's a high degree of depth.

 

Cheeser!  Did you embed LEDs in the epoxy filler in the crack?  Really clever idea, no matter how you pulled it off.  [thumbs up]  [smile]

 

[junk731]

First attempt at an end grain countertop for my kitchen. Size is about 17" X 42".

Thought I'd ask the group for their opinions on finishes. I'm thinking of some sort of oil (maybe boiled linseed) to make the colors pop a little more then clear bar top epoxy. It is not intended to be used as a cutting board. My only reservation with the bar top epoxy is that a wall oven will be adjacent to where it will be installed so at some time it might have a +400 Deg. F dish rested on it without thought to consequences. Not sure how the epoxy would handle the heat.

There is no finish for wood or countertop material that I know of short of soapstone that would take 400F without some sort of potential damage. Doesn't sound like a real good place to put a top with that much work in it.

 

[Cheese]

Cheeser!  Did you embed LEDs in the epoxy filler in the crack?  Really clever idea, no matter how you pulled it off.  [thumbs up]  [smile]

Hey Sparky...ya I’ve been going to do a Before & After thread on my last 3-4 completed projects but I just never get “round-to-it”  [big grin]

Maybe this time though, because I took a lot of photos. Basically LEDs mounted to an aluminum flat that is used as a heat sink that was routed into the bottom of the slab. Used some real thin Dominos as wiring retainers. Think 10mm x 24mm x 3mm. Pretty fun project. When you turn on the under-counter LED task lighting, the crack also becomes illuminated.  [cool]...very...[cool]

 

[HarveyWildes]

...
[member=61231]HarveyWildes[/member] What brand poly/oil did you use?
...

I make my own by mixing linseed oil, oil-based poly varnish, and orange oil (rather than mineral spirits).  I start the mix out heavy on the orange oil (40-50%) and add more linseed oil and poly in roughly equal amounts in each successive application, until the orange oil is down in the noise.  That gets the mix into the wood early in the process, and more substantial coats later in the process.  I generally dry sand to 600 grit, then wet sand successive coats of the mixture using grits from 600-2000 grit depending on the piece, the look I want, and how much work it's worth.  I sanded the countertop to 1200.  For most of my oil finishes I do 4-6 coats.

WRT the orange oil, I've heard that it's safer and it certainly smells better than mineral spirits.  I do all my cleanup outside with mineral spirits.

 

[Sparktrician]

Cheeser!  Did you embed LEDs in the epoxy filler in the crack?  Really clever idea, no matter how you pulled it off.  [thumbs up]  [smile]

Hey Sparky...ya I’ve been going to do a Before & After thread on my last 3-4 completed projects but I just never get “round-to-it”  [big grin]

Maybe this time though, because I took a lot of photos. Basically LEDs mounted to an aluminum flat that is used as a heat sink that was routed into the bottom of the slab. Used some real thin Dominos as wiring retainers. Think 10mm x 24mm x 3mm. Pretty fun project. When you turn on the under-counter LED task lighting, the crack also becomes illuminated.  [cool]...very...[cool]

Cool stuff, Cheeser!!!  I'm looking forward to the "How I did it" part.  Your round tuit is in the mail...  [big grin]

 

[ProCarpenterRVA]

Mineral Oil, Food Grade. Get it from Woodcraft Supply or just Google Shop it.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[Eherby]

Nice...nice stuff. Like Michael said, nice consistency across the surface. [thumbs up]

As far as epoxy goes, the West 207/105 combination I recently used is not heat friendly. It looks real nice and protects the countertop from moisture, but heat is not its friend.

Here are a couple of shots of a white oak countertop I just finished with a 2mm coating of West 207/105. The colors pop real nice and there's a high degree of depth.

That’s looks great. How do you apply?  I love the colors it brings out.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Cheese]

That’s looks great. How do you apply?  I love the colors it brings out.

I just take some aluminum HVAC tape and form a short dam around the top of the slab. Mix up the epoxy and pour it on the surface. It self-levels pretty well.
First pour should max out at approximately 1mm. I did this in 2 pours of 1mm each. Don’t go too much more than 1-1.5mm per pour because it will/can craze. You can polish out the crazing but it’s a lot of additional work.