kryptonjohn:

 

Nice work there Fred! I'd really like a bench top that could be treated as a giant butcher's block so I could just chop and cut food on it and wipe it clean. Make it thick enough that it can be sanded and refinished for years to come. Is that practical? Friend has a benchtop made out of some kind of bamboo and it seems bulletproof.

 

We have had Stonex in two houses so far. Seems to be good and reasonable price. Haven't managed in either house to gouge burn or stain it. It can have small flaws such as specks of different colour in it, and it can have small chips from manufacture and installation. However these are easily filled in (but leave a visible speck).

 

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What I do not like is bench tops that are super hard - granite and marble. Feel like you'll smash a glass just gently placing it on them!

 

 

 

Those butchers blocks are usually end grain.  So long as you had a thicknesser to make sure all the timber was gauged precisely, I can't see why it couldn't be a DIY project. For a 900 x 1800 bench, you'd only need to gauge a stack of timber, cut, align, glue, and clamp about 2500 individual 25x25mm blocks.  Hmmm....  it would be a very long DIY project.

There seems to be no issue with normal hot stuff on that beech benchtop - though not seen in the photos, the oven/cooktop are at the other end of the kitchen with plenty of SS bench space and double sinks alongside, I'd never bung a hot frying pan on it. The finish is a Cabots water based matt varnish - it's infinitely better / more durable than water based finished from a few years ago.