I recommend John Boos in the oiled finish.

We have had ours about 8 years. We cut right on them, and they look as good as the day the went in. Very satisfied.

Thanks Julie, we just looked at some John Boos yesterday - looked nice and we can sure live with the price.

want something very unusual? Look into Timeless Timbers in Ashland Wisconsin which carries salvaged wood from the bottom of Lake Superior. Amazing colors in the butcherblock. Ain't cheap, though, but it would be the making of a room.

Dear Juliekcmo -- thanks for sharing your experience with John Boos quality.

Florantha -- thanks for letting us all know about Timeless Timbers. I am so glad to learn about this interesting company. I took a look at there website -- gorgeous stuff! I'll be curious to hear if anyone pipes up to let us know that they have worked with them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Timeless Timbers website

For those of you not considering/recommending Ikea butcherblock, I would love to hear your reasons. I have been leaning towards Ikea counters in some sections, because it looks beautiful in the photos I've seen and the price is ungodly low. Is there something I don't know?

Hi Zebras, Good question.

I've also always been impressed by IKEA butcherblock counters and a number of my friends have had them in their kitchen over the years. The problem is, I'm trying to spend a ridiculous amount of money on my kitchen and IKEA is just too much of a bargain for me (Just kidding!)

Actually, I'm looking for butcherblock for an island which will be one of the most important design features of my kitchen. I'm interested in cherry or walnut (two woods not available at IKEA); I'l looking for something thicker (perhaps 2") than IKEA offers; and I'm looking for a long edgegrain construction without as many staggered seams as the IKEA counters.

This is one possible look I'm trying to go for:

{{!gwi}}

Oh, oh I'm so interested in this thread. I need an island butcher block top, also. Would you believe that we've had a piece of particle board on our island going on three years now! The last time I got a splinter in my little finger I swore I was gonna get on the stick and get a real top. Like you, Francoise47, I think this is going to be the absolute focal point of my small kitchen and I guess I've been afraid to make a mistake.

I have spoken on the phone to Grothouse several times but that's about as far as I've gotten. I'm somewhat interested in their distressed tops...should probably order a sample from them. I will say that after abusing this particle board top for so long I'm hesitant to get something that I feel like I will have to baby. Does anyone else feel this way? Unlike you, Fracoise47, I don't think I'm interested in cutting/chopping on mine. I just want something beautiful, even soulful that is practical, as well.

Keep us posted on your progress.

I'm still fancying and debating a wood top for my island with prep sink that I don't intend to cut directly on but still needs to be food safe. I'd love it, but haven't been able to sort out all of the info here on what products to use to treat it. So much talk about tung oil or not, citrus solvent (whatever that is), waterlox, mineral oil, magic oil, milk paint, etc., etc. that I can't figure out what's best.

I just googled reclaimed wood countertops for my state and came across this site with wood countertop companies.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wood countertop choices

breezy... i think the problem with waterlox and tung oil is that it is derived from nuts; if anyone in your family is allergic, then it's not a choice. otherwise it sounds like it works very well.

francoise47, thank you for starting this thread. :) are the samples you received from Hardwood Lumber unfinished? if so, are you planning to do the staining/treating yourself?

Dear Ironcook, I'm glad the thread has been beneficial.

Yes, the samples from Hardwood Lumber Company arrived unfinished. I put mineral oil on the sample to see how they looked and it really brought out the wood in a beautiful way.

The final product will also arrive unfinished (I haven't ordered yet). Any suggestions for finishing? I don't plan to cut on the wood surface. No nut allergies in our family.

Francoise,
That picture is from Grothouse, and it's the edge grain walnut with dominant sapwood, right? Well, if that's what you are looking for, I'm the girl you need to talk to! We just had that exact thing (from Grothouse) installed on our island two days ago in 2 1/4 inch thickness with 1/8 inch eased edge. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to see it for the first time tomorrow. If you want, I can take pictures and show it to you. I cannot wait to see it!!!!

Hi Spider, Yeah! Thanks for making that connection. My kitchen is still 2-3 months from completion, but it sounds like we may have "separated at birth" kitchens. (Except mine is shaping up to be all white, despite the fact that for months I flirted with the idea of a Farrow and Ball "Eating Room Red" island).

I'd love to see your edge grain walnut island top when you are ready for the reveal. Are you, by chance, in NJ? Did you drive over to see Grothouse in person? I'm trying to decide if I want to take a little field trip to PA for spring break to check out island tops.

Ironcook--on another wood counter thread recently, some folks were saying they didn't want Waterlox because of the resins in it. Like I said, I haven't had a chance to really research all of the various finish options to see if that would bother me, but it's an issue for some.

Spider--I'd love to see your pics too. Please post!

Another NJ girl here with a Grothouse wood island top-- I love it!
I took a trip out last summer with the kids & it was well worth it to see the samples in person. We worked with Chad and he was great.
If you happen to have little ones, we stopped off at the crayola factory on the way home & it made for a really nice day.

We went with a wenge wood top with the durata finish. It is definitely the highlight of our kitchen and we love it. We do not cut directly on it but it is used every day for breakfast and it is great for buffets as well. I feel like I spend half of my life standing around that island-- definitely the perfect gathering space & so beautiful to look at :)

Here are some pictures:

Crescent--That's gorgeous! I'm on the other coast so a trip there is not possible for me. My island, where I'm considering the wood top, has a sink and will be my major prep spot. I cook A LOT and while I don't plan to chop directly on the wood, I know food will land on it.

Do you have any pics closer up to see the wood better? I don't mean to be greedy, but a girl has to ask! ;)

Thanks breezygirl-- it really is a beautiful piece of wood.

Here are 2 more pictures- the 1st is from the day it was installed and the second is an up-close shot. We moved in the day before Halloween & as you can see, my little one was exhausted. Very sweet but it gives you a good view of the wood grain too.

Dear Cresent50,

Beautiful! And your wood island top is gorgeous too! Thanks for posting. Glad to hear you had a good experience with Grothouse.

(Your "Crayola Factory" comment brings back fond memories. My oldest is now 21. Enjoy your little sleeping beauty.)

Forgive me Crescent50, but I'm drooling all over your wenge wood top!!! Gorgeous, as is your little mouse.

Do you recall what edge treatment you got on it? It looks like the edge on the wood matches the edge on your granite. Is that the case? Oh, and how thick is your top?

Girl, you should have known you would be bombarded with questions after posting pics of that lovely. HA!

Thanks for any answers and thank you for posting the pictures.
pupwhipped

Thanks for more pics! It's as lovely close up as I thought it would be. Your Mini is sweet as well.

Thanks for the nice comments everyone!

I just pulled out the paperwork-- here are the details:
1 1/2" thick x 62" x 90 1/2" Edge Grain Wenge Wood Island Top
Edge Treatment: Standard Roman Ogee on top of all edges, bottom & vertical corners to be square
One Roman Arc
Durata Permanent Finish

We had a representative fromGrothouse come out to template for the island and also had them install it.
It cost a few hundred $ but considering the investment, we wanted to make sure it was done right.

Hope this info helps :)

Agh! Just got back from visiting the house, but I could not get a picture! They had the top covered in foam, but I was able to peak under it. It is GORGEOUS. I swear I think I might sleep on it the first night. It has a lot of the lighter wood, but not so much that it look unnatural. (I was worried about that with the dominant sapwood) I promise I will eventually post pictures, but they will have to wait. :( We move in less than 4 weeks, so hopefully it won't be too long.

I live in Virginia, but Grothouse sells their tops in a kitchen store that is 20 minutes from me. I found a salesperson there who was very knowledgeable, and he was able to order samples for me. From there, I decided on what I liked (I had narrowed it down to regular walnut vs dom sapwood walnut, and oiled vs the durata finish)

francoise & breezy... thanks for the info.

i was thinking of using waterlox, but now breezy has pointed out a resin issue. i remember allison0704 recommended a product called "Good Stuff for Wood", but haven't had time to look into that, either. so many things to investigate!

crescent50... your island is beautiful; minnie, too. :)

spider-- can't wait to see your pictures!
Our island top was installed about 6 weeks before we moved in so I covered it with moving blankets and taped it up. Then I put a huge note on it to remind the workers not to put anything on it or lift the wrap.
Everybody that came to see/work on the house in those last weeks was teasing me about it, but when it was time for the big "reveal" on move-in" day, I was thrilled!
I actually have a funny picture of my husband laying across the island-- he said he wanted to sleep on it too!

Here is the picture:

DH called, he is on his way home from picking up our John Boos butcher block. We ordered a ready made size and need to cut it down width-wise to fit. We got a real good deal - turns out the person we talked to quoted us the wholesale price and they honored it. Still more than Ikea, but probably about $50 less than we should have paid.

It will be nice to get this cut and installed. The temporary laminate scarp we used is warping already.

hey that's great macybaby! what kind of wood did you choose?

okay, i'm not sure if anyone has heard of this before, but one person said waterlox smells really bad! this is the condensed version of her post, and i've linked to the thread below.

* Posted by stw954 (My Page) on
Mon, Feb 9, 09 at 13:57

Maybe this is just me, but I can smell my waterlox samples (from Devos and Brooks Custom)...even after nine months.

...When wood finishers make furniture, they NEVER use that kind of product on the inside of drawers because it will seemingly gas off forever.

...I don't know if that smell ever goes away, and I wouldn't have it in my kitchen. This is why we are not going with Brooks or Devos. (I wanted wide plank, and Waterlox is all they'll use.)

Get a sample of the finish from one of the companies above and make sure you can stand the smell.

Here is a link that might be useful: Thread: Where to get wood counters

ironcook - we selected maple as it's main purpose is a cutting block and function was the main concern. I'm hoping having an oiled maple butcherblock on the small island and a finished birch butcherblock on the baking center don't conflict.

For those who haven't followed this, Timeless Timbers is pulling very old growth logs from the cold cold water of Lake Superior. This wood was "sinkers" that did not float to surface. Elm, maple, birch and some other things. Very dense grain and sometimes wide logs. Company also is also working with salvagers in other locations and offers their products.

Butcherblock can be made in controlled color combos or in a dramatic range of colors including yellows, mustards, oranges, greens and even a little blue sometimes.

francois47, thanks for finding the link to the Timeless Timbers website. I went crazy for them a year or two ago when the decor of my kitchen was still in discussion. If I had followed an early muse I would now have countertops of this amazing stuff. I went to Ashland and talked to the guys and looked at their stock. You can buy a cutting board from their gift store to take home and live with. They don't salvage continuously and therefore their stock ebbs and flows with the market (pun intended). At that tough time the economy had not picked up momentum and they were not offering some of the stuff that had been available in previous time. At least not in the winter season; they didn't even have regular hours. Call before you travel long distance to be sure there is going to be someone there. I think there are more regular hours in summer.

At first we wanted their butcherblock to be in the most prominent position in the kitchen, which makes sense. Then the position changed and it was shifted deeper and deeper into the room and in the decor that we eventually abandoned it had ended up being a mere two-foot square of the strongly variegated stuff to be used either side of the range. They bid $600. Ikea monotone stuff was less than a fourth of that. Since it was only going to be seen by the cook, I decided who cares? and saved the money. And it freed me up to choose a busier Formica pattern and DH spent the savings in other ways.

I still think it would be the making of a room, esp. a room with a strong theme of natural materials or ruggedness. Or as a counterfoil for reds/oranges/mustards. Not for wimps.

The nearby info station within the local visitor center and archive at Ashland is made from reclaimed maple from Timeless Timbers and it's an amazing thing. Someone posted a query about translucence in wood and that maple unit came to mind. I think besides the sheen & depth it has an embedded figure in it, depositions of minerals maybe? I'll never forget it. I just bent down and petted the sides of the visitor station. My saliva is still there I suspect.

ironcook, regarding the smell with Waterlox, I think I've read posts here on Gardenweb that say Waterlox Satin Finish has less odor than Waterlox Regular Finish, so it may depend which type you use.

Becky

Florantha--thanks for the info. I'm doing a busier Carrara on my perimeters. Do you think their wood would work with that for my island? I'm beginning to suspect that it might no based on your description. I'm not doing the ruggedness look here.

Breezy, I'm no expert. I wrote a posting recently about how many "clowns" (elements that say "look at me!") that a room can tolerate. Might be worth reading if you want to hear me pontificate a little (who me?).

The Victorians said "this room is getting a little busy, we better just put in a few more busy elements and then stop"; the modernists say "this element makes the room look busy and it stops the eye, we better remove it"; I say "there are about 5 clowns in my kitchen, gotta quit buying clowns."

Go find that posting with the "new" Peacock kitchens--there's some strong end-grain (high-contrast checkerboard effect) butcherblock in those rooms. Actually, they're used in the older Peacock kitchens also. You might find your stone in them too. Some whitish marble has a green cast, which might find a complement in the reclaimed wood.

I do think that this product is really interesting. Not sure if that means "right for you" or "right for me." But then, I'm the one who started the Red Freaks thread also, which means I'm not meek in planning interiors.

Have fun stormin' the castle!

macybaby... i would think those two woods should complement each other.

beckysharp... thanks for the info on the satin waterlox being less smelly! :) maybe i'll have to get samples of both to compare.

florantha... i just googled your red freaks thread. me too! red toaster, red rice cooker, red sofa, red dining chairs.... i'm just thinking if we go cherry counters, red won't work anymore?

re: timeless timbers... beautiful!

Crescent50, thank you so much for your reply to my questions. I appreciate your time very much!

BTW, your daughter is absolutely beautiful. All the best to you and your sweet little Minnie "tuckered out" Mouse.

pup

I am new at all of this but do you order the countertop separately from the cabinets or go through your cabinet maker? I got a quote from my cabinet maker to do a countertop for a island aprox 60x75 for $6000 in maple. Is that reasonable?

I fell in love with Grothouse, sapele mahogany...HAD to have it. TOO expensive, so I ordered a sample and took it to a local cabinet maker who did my tops for me at about 1/2 the cost. If they were side by side, NO ONE could tell the difference...

We got Grothouse tigerwood with the durata finish. We did not want to use it to cut on, just as a landing space on a second island for things coming out of the fridge and oven.
We ordered it through a local kitchen store but had a cabinetmaker make the island and install the wood top.

allight... no that seems expensive. my whole small kitchen was estimated at $4000 for custom cherry, with sink/cooktop cutouts.

bj... i mentioned this before, but your tiger wood island is gorgeous. :)

So I emailed Brooks and they called me today. Turned out they had also just submitted a quote to my cabinet maker! Now the price has come down to just over 5K with a maple top stained. Does that seem more in line? It would be wide planks. Thanks so much for the help/advice - I feel like I am trying to learn Chinese in a day!

hi allight...

face grain (the wide planks) is more expensive, especially if you are getting a premium grade of maple. also it depends on the thickness of the wood and how fancy an edge you're getting. but your quote still seems high to me.

i highly recommend that you get an estimate from Grothouse, since they seem to be the favorite around here for quality.

and you should probably start your own thread, not because i'm trying to get rid of you! it's just you will get more people to weigh in on your specific question. i'm more than happy to share what (little) i've learned, but there are people with more experience to be sure! good luck! :)

I do not recommend Hardwood Lumber Company. We recently bought three walnut cutting boards from them. On the first day we opened them, we washed them with warm water and a rag -- and the grain throughout the board became raised! We did nothing more than take care of the boards exactly as we take care of our other boards, warm water with soap and a rag, and these boards were rough and looked destroyed after one wash.

When I emailed customer service, they lectured me on how to take care of my boards, as though I didn't know. They told me to not submerge in water (we didn't) and to not run it through the dishwasher (we didn't -- who puts their cutting boards in the dishwasher???). The customer service representative then told me I should use mineral oil on the board (which I would typically do anyway for new boards) and SAND it. Now my question is this -- when I buy a cutting board, I kind of expect that the manufacturer would have sanded their cutting boards. This should not be my job.

The worst part is, no matter how much sanding you do, on cheap boards like this, the grains will never be smooth and will continue to raise. I do not consider these boards to be food safe.

Finally, the shipping on these boards was expensive -- almsot $30. When I asked for a refund on the product and the shipping, they told me they would charge me a 20% restocking fee. There are many better cutting boards out there. Given my experience with the quality of these products and the level of poor customer service, I would never buy anything from this company.

we washed them with warm water and a rag -- and the grain throughout the board became raised!

Janice, this is perfectly normal and is to be expected. In fact, I utilize this technique of using water to raise the grain when I finish wood. Sand, wet to raise the grain, let dry. Sand. Repeat, using successively finer grits. With each cycle, there is less raised grain. In fact, it's particularly important to do this when you're using water based finishes.

But cutting boards aren't furniture...they're typically sanded to only about 150 grit. Anything finer is counterproductive. But it is still a good idea to raise the grain & sand it off the raised nubbins with more 150 grit and repeat it a couple of times when you're breaking in a brand new board.

Another thing to take note of is that walnut is an open-grained wood and not ideal material for a cutting board to begin with. When you wet an open grained wood, you'll get more raised grain than you would with a close grained wood like maple...which is part of the reason that maple is the wood of choice for cutting boards. That, and it is a lot harder wood than the reasonably soft walnut is.

So, based on everything you said, I don't see any evidence that you got an inferior product. What I do see is someone who isn't familiar with the differing properties of different woods and how & why one type of wood might be a better choice for a given use than another type of wood. Breaking in a new cutting board is a process, an on-going process not unlike seasoning a new carbon steel or cast iron skillet.

Thanks for the information. However, I have at least half a dozen other cutting boards and have never had this problem. As a consumer, I would prefer to not be the person who has to sand my own cutting board --- I've never had to do this with any other cutting board I have ever owned. There are many more low-maintenance cutting boards out there from companies with better customer service, so I don't see why I should ever go back to buying from Hardwood Lumber Company again.

So, I priced a 12 x 18 x 1.5 Walnut cutting board...

Hardwood Lumber Company $47.52 + shipping

John Boos $105 (shipping included)

A rather substantial price difference that will be magnified when you're talking in terms of island countertops. (Depending on how far you live from Ohio where HLC is located regarding cost of shipping.) For those of us on tight budgets and who don't mind investing a little sweat equity, it is a good thing to have lower priced alternatives.

Here is a vote for Hardwood Lumber Company. Our top just arrived. Very well packaged and cut to exact specs. (ignore the white plugs. Place holder until dark ones can replace.)

You may also want to look at local wood shops that could build you the butcher block in the dimensions you need and thus not have to ship it to you. As long as the wood selection is not too exotic I think many small shops would take on the project. Here is a white pine top that we're currently building for a local client. It will have an epoxy resin coated finish so the hardness is not a factor and it will not be used for food prep.

These guys make some incredible products and their customer service is second to none. https://www.hardwood-lumber.com/

Country Mouldings out of Ohio is another source and Blockhead out of northern Michigan. I just had two tops from John Boos delivered. Delays, shipping problems, wrong size and a small defect in a corner. Very poor communication on their part and the retailer. Although it is very pretty, I would not order from them again. A local source where shipping is not an issue would be a priority for me.

We are wanting a walnut butcher block top unfinished (I'm thinking I'll finish myself in Osmo Top Oil) that is 120" x 36" for an island in our kitchen. The problem is we are in Portland, OR and I would like to find a shop on the west Coast. Any recommendations?

I'm in CA and recently purchased a very nice cherry top from Hardwood Lumber--it wasn't a huge top but I was still expecting shipping to be absurd. It wasn't. So it doesn't hurt to ask for a quote!

Now I need one about 12' long plus a dog leg. Or tile. *sigh*

I would still think that any decent local wood shop can build that top for you guys, and as a finish option here is one that we did in epoxy resin. You can see the build process under our projects section.

Dining table Butcher block with resin finish · More Info

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RedDogsCrafts