What do you intend to do on the counter? Mahogany is an open-grained wood, that is it has little open pores that are not desireable in a hard working counter top. If you will not be cutting, rolling dough, etc. on the counter, that may not be a problem. If you are, then both an open grain and stained wood are not the best choices.

If you must opt for stain, use an analine dye that will stain deep into the wood, rather than the conventional stains which just colour the surface. When you refinish the wood, stain will be lost, but not evenly, unless you sand the entire surface.

Polyurethane is not a very durable surface for working on. In addition to the problems of water getting through any pinhole crack and lifting it, it WILL wear as you scrub it down daily. This is not treated like a normal piece of furniture. You need a renewable surface. I have used tung oil on counters for almost 30 years. It works very well. As it thins, you just add another coat and the surface will look like new. If you polyurethane, you will have to remove the old surface before you can add new coats.

I am interested in this thread, as well. While we will probably have all the working counters granite, I wanted to use a nice interesting piece of wood on the sit-at bar. It will make a nice transition piece between the kitchen's granite and the dining room's wood table and chairs. While no work (chopping, pots, appliances) will be on the bar, it must be resistant to spills and food stains.

We haven't determined the color yet, so not a real issue, but I am interested in the wear of the finish. Sounds like the tung oil is my bet? Sorry for hi-jacking the thread, wasabi3. We are leaning toward the merbau flooring, too. So perhaps you will let us know if your coloring went well.

Sherry.

Use pure tung oil if you are going to do any food prep on the counter, otherwise polymerized tung oil works well. Either will resist spills and stains. On the kitchen forum, someone complained about their wood counter getting red wine stains on it, so I poured a bit of red wine on a counter and left it overnight. After I wiped it with a damp cloth the next morning, there was no trace of the wine.

Lee Valley is a good source of pure or polymerized tung oil.

Applying tung oil is simple.

Put on a coat (with a cloth or your hand) wait 10 minutes and wipe off any excess. Let it dry for an hour.

Do another coat the same way. Wait three hours. Do another coat.

Do two more coats a day apart then another after about a week.

You now have six coats. You can add a couple more a week apart if you want. This surface should last at least a year if you aren't scrubbing it down daily. When it starts to look a bit dull or dry, just apply another coat or two of tung oil. You don't need to sand, strip or anything else but have it clean.

sharon- thanks for sharing your feedback. I'm saving your instructions. Glad to hear of the good results from your red wine test. I'd be reluctant to try that test myself, but it tells me you are very confident of your finish. After reading many posts about an oil-based finish, this is definitely the way we are going. I've had excellent customer service at Lee Valley, so I will go with them for the poly tung oil. I suppose the best thing would be to have the surface initially treated with the poly tung oil. Or can I apply the poly oil on top of pure tung oil if the initial finish is pure oil? I like the idea of being able to renew the surface as needed. Our island will not be used for any food prep, but will get alot of use by the kids and for meals.

As far as the type of mahogany, we did a pencil test on white mahogany and red mahogany by writing on a piece of paper on top of both ; the white one left strong imprints while the red one had nothing at all. Told us the white was rather soft. So now our cabinetmaker says he'll bring a sample of African mahogany, and we'll do the same test.

sherry- the sample of the red mahogany looked like a very good blend with the merbau floor, even with a clear finish. We're waiting for the sample of the African to see how it looks with the floors. I'll post pics if this nightmare of a remodel *ever* gets done. I think a woodtop will add warmth and texture to your layout.

Wasabi3, yes please, I'd very much like to see your choices when they're in. I actually wouldn't mind a *bit* of softness and have it be a little bit prone to "aging." Again as a counterpoint to the hard smooth granite. We are probably going with the Absolute Black granite, which will pull the near-black graining out of the Merbau.

For my sit-at bar application, would it be recommended that the mahogany (or whatever wood we choose) only be clear stained? No colored stains or dyes? (Actually, I don't even know if the wood can be stained if it is only finished with the tung oil. All new to me, this. Help?)

Again, no actual kitchen work to be done here, and no kids living here (only to visit), but I know DH will be interested in a color more on the dark side. He likes the texture counterpoint between the granite and the wood bar, but he doesn't want the wood to add a color contrast. Any thoughts?

Thanks, sharon, for the tung oil application instructions. Question, though.

Quote:
"Put on a coat (with a cloth or your hand) wait 10 minutes and wipe off any excess. Let it dry for an hour.

Do another coat the same way. Wait three hours. Do another coat.

Do two more coats a day apart then another after about a week."

The wood as a counter with this tung oil application is usable after you've waited the one hour, and then the three hours? So apply, let sit, wipe, wait - and then usable, right? Thanks.

Sherry.

You can use the top once no oil will come off on a clean cloth. But the oil will still be soft. You can wipe it gently, but I wouldn't scrub it until it has had at least a week to harden. That way you won't be rubbing off the oil on the surface.

Can pure tung oil be applied on top of wood that has previously been treated with mineral oil and Boos Mystery Oil?

Anyone?