Finishing a Jarrah Kitchen Benchtop

[Longterm]

Hi all

My first post and I can't believe I didn't find this forum earlier...it could have saved me a lot of grief!

I am just finishing my Jarrah benchtops (3 of) and intend to finish with just orange oil. Can anyone see any issues or problems that may arise because of this (being a kitchen benchtop). Are there any other suggestions as to how I might finish?

The reason for going the oil and not varnish etc is for the nil toxicity. We are a bit alternative and avoid harmful chemicals at all costs.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Cheers

Longterm (as in my projects...)

[gooma]

Hi mate and welcome to the forum,

I`ve used Orange oil on jarrah a bit in the past and it works well.

The only issue i can see is that you`ll be up for ongoing applications of orange oil as it`ll dry out over time and with regular wear and tear. Provided you sand down to a finer grit you`ll get a really nice finish.

Good luck and dont forget to post a few pics of the finished product.

cheers
Brad

[mechippy]

Ive used orange oil on cutting boards etc, but usually use "butchers block conditioner " as well. The orange oil will seal the timber, but im not sure how long it would last or how often you would need to redo it. Orange oil is also a pretty good cleaner as well, so I guess if you use it as part of your cleaning routine it may work well. Let us know how it goes, 'cause im starting my kitchen soon

Maybe if you want something extra look at the conditioner as well, its got wax and (from memory) vitamins added to food grade mineral oil and little else, so pretty much natural, and it is a certified food safe product (the brand I use is anyway). It will still need regular maintenance, but still only a wipe over, and it really works on cutting blocks. You can still use the orange oil as well, maybe alternate.

Anyway, just an idea, maybe you could do a test on a cutting board or similar to see how it stands up. But please do let us know how it goes.

Good Luck !

Mark

[BozInOz]

My favorite finish is...

UBeaut Shellac 1lb (ie. v. thin.) Raises the grain and seals pores. Repeat.
Organoil (hard burnishing oil). Sand to high grit. Micromesh in the ROS gave best results. Repeat x 3.
UBeaut Wax. (makes a difference.)

In my experience pretty tough.

Like what's already been said you'll need to clean the wax reoil and rewax every year or two.

Dan

[kman-oz]

UBeaut Shellac 1lb (ie. v. thin.) Raises the grain and seals pores. Repeat.
Organoil (hard burnishing oil). Sand to high grit. Micromesh in the ROS gave best results. Repeat x 3.
UBeaut Wax. (makes a difference.)

Dan, I would expect to normally use the HBO first, let it harden, then Shellac, then wax. If you're sealing with Shellac first I don't understand how HBO will improve the surface.

Longterm, if I was to use only natural products I would condition the bare surface with Tung Oil (which is what HBO is based on) repeatedly over a period of a few weeks. Following this you could optionally apply a Shellac finish* for shine, then lastly some natural wax. The U-beaut Shellac and Traditional Wax are awesome. Bare in mind that Shellac isn't ideal for bench tops because it marks relatively easily and isn't wonderfully resistant to water. It would be a fairly high maintenance finish.

* NOTE: Shellac can be applied over almost anything, I've applied it over Hard Burnishing Oil and Tung Oil before. However, most oils will dry over time, you must allow sufficient time for the oils to dry before applying Shellac. If you don't the Shellac will degrade.

[Longterm]

Hi all

Thanks for the advice, but time got the better of me and the mate who was helping me put the kitchen in casually said, "well, the benchtops will be going in tomorrow"!

I ended up using the Organoil (HBO) after talking to Ernie and it came up beautifully. I finished it all at 0530 next morning (yes...up ALL night burnishing). It's really smooth and still looks hardy.

It took a lot of time (being my first major project) with the sanding taking a large part of that. Many good lessons learnt though and will do a couple of things a little differently next time.

Here are a couple of photos. Don't be too harsh on the look as I used floorboards and didn't dress them at all. Just glued and sanded.

I'll be interested in seeing how long they last and my better half isn't the tidest chef inthe kitchen and has a great knack of turning clean benches into masses of scraps (for the chooks).

Cheers

Longterm (as in my projects)

[kman-oz]

I didn't look at the date of your first post

Looks great! You will still get benefit from applying wax to that surface; a) to help with water protection and b) to improve the shine level. Were they recycled floor boards, or new?

[Longterm]

kman-oz
Spot on with old jarrah floorboards. Borrowed off a mate who occasionally demolishes old houses.

I am also lucky enought to be living in a very old house (late forties) which has jarrah florboards throughout - all 130mm wide. When I pull the house down in a few years, I'll have plenty of jarrah to build more stuff.

You wouldn't believe the amount of times tradesmen have said I'll take those floorboards off your hands when you demolish your house. Yeah right!

[BobL]

Nice work Longterm and I agree with the organoil choice. My one minor concern with it is it does eventually make jarrah go very dark.

The reason for going the oil and not varnish etc is for the nil toxicity. We are a bit alternative and avoid harmful chemicals at all costs.

I hate to rain on your parade but aiming for nil toxicity in an old house is somewhat of a contradiction. Houses that are older than about 40 years are surrounded by a halo of lead based paint dust from all the painting it would have had over the years. All paint oxidizes and eventually turns to dust. Even if the paint is 100% stripped off all surfaces the dust will still be everywhere, in the wall cavities, ceiling, under the floor, and in the soil outside the building even building a brand new house in an old suburb has a risk because the whole street/suburb will be contaminated. Just to add a little more to the problem, the top ~30 cm of soil in Perth is still contaminated from the leaded petrol we used for half a century up until a few years back. Shall we now talk about the pesticides used in the 1940-50s that have left residues everywhere? What about the acres of exposed super six asbestos sheeting spread across the older suburbs of Perth? Any toxicity from poly based surface products is just swamped by the nasties that are already out there in old houses/suburbs. If anyone wants to minimise their exposure to harmful chemicals then the first thing I'd suggest is not living in an old suburb, pulling down an old house or using any recycled materials from houses, especially older than about 40 years. No one wants to know about these problems and up until recently few agencies/labs have been able to test for them. It amuses and concerns me that some people think they are able to create a low-toxicity lifestyle in a suburban environment containing an invisible sea of potential toxins.

BTW we live in a house, part of which is 8o years old, that has ~5 layers of lead based paints and 3 of non-lead based paints.