Some photos of the reclaimed oak countertops project

[sleepy hollow]

All,

Thanks for the advice I received here. My original post is entitled: "need advice for finishing retail countertops for my son's shop."

I thought I would try to convey some sense of what we ended up doing in case others have similar questions, etc. Here goes...

We started with this old barn wood oak:



Then we planed it:



Then we glued up slabs:






Then we dyed it and added a coat of dewaxed shellac:




Then we added three coats of varathane triple poly with a 400 grit sanding between coats.

Here are various shots of the finished products:

[sleepy hollow]

Varathane triple poly is satin gloss.

[fredhargis]

That really turned out nice, though I have to admit I like the look of the wood right after planing. Any problem with applying the Varathane varnish?

[sleepy hollow]

Thanks for your compliments. Yes, agree the oak looks great au natural. However, the store has a color scheme that I need to follow, and it really will look very chic for the tony Georgetown neighborhood.

As for the varathane triple poly, here is what I learned:
- Apply it as quickly as possible as it sets up very fast and shows brush landing marks quite noticeably. What I did for the second and third coat was to apply it to the full length of the board about 12 inches wide at a time and then dragged the brush from one end to the other without stopping, and with overlap as I moved laterally, to integrate all brush strokes and level everything. This avoided any landing or take off of the brush except at the ends.

- I found that the first coat was not very smooth, and sanded in between with 400 grit wet/dry. I did it dry wrapped around a 3M sponge sander which seemed to be a good choice. Had to clear the sandpaper constantly. Applied as little pressure as possible to let the sand paper take down the slight roughness. Then after a thorough vacuuming I applied a coat of the poly. I ended up with 3 coats on the top and two on the undersides. One thousand percent smoother after the second coat, and the third was another 100 percent better in terms of depth and smoothness.
- My opinion is that 3 coats of the triple is probably equivalent to two coats of oil-based poly, but that is certainly subject to debate as I have not used oil-based in quite some time.

I can say that I would not likely go back to the regular water poly since the triple poly seems to do pretty much what it claims, i.e., applies a significantly thicker coat than the regular water poly.

The downsides:

I don't think a single coat is enough. But I really was not expecting that in the end.

It is more expensive and I could not find it in any size greater than a quart ~ $17 per I think.

With the water-based dye (we used TransTint but mixed with denatured alcohol), I chose to seal the dye with dewaxed shellac or it would come up on the brush as the water poly re-activated it. I actually want to experiment more with the dye and see how skipping that shellac step might affect the final look as the dye is pulled up into the finish.

Also, there are other possibilities associated with mixing the dye in the poly and the shellac. We actually added dye to the shellac to prevent some of the re-mixing that seemed to be happening. That helped to make the color more uniform. And it did not re-activate when mixed with the shellac. I tested a sample of dye mixed with triple poly and found the same thing-the poly sealed in the dye, and no evidence of reactivation after it set up and I applied a wet paper towel.

I probably answered more than you asked, but got on a roll and it's always good to document experience at the time, FWIW.