I have both soapstone(Black Venata) and butcherblock(cherry.) Black Venata is supposed to be one of the softer varieties, but I do not baby it at all. In the few months they've been in, I've gotten 2 dings in the soapstone. One was from DH dropping a diamond bit and the other was from DS1 and a titanium shafted lax stick. Not bad considering that at any given time I may have half a dozen stick weilding teenagers running through the house. Neither ding is detectable without running your hands across them. I've oiled the soapstone a few times and do not get water marks or any other marks on them. Cherry is a relatively soft wood and I do baby them. I use the same mineral oil/beeswax on them, but I do treat them more often. I also am ready with a tea towel to swoop in and mop up anything on the cherry. If I was going to rethink either surface it would be the butcherblock. I'd go with lyptus instead of cherry. Same beautiful color. Hardier wood. GC's don't want you blaming them for any possible scratch, but if you go in eyes wide open and let them know that you understand that the counters will develop a patina they should get on board.

I've had edge grain hard maple in my basement kitchen (now an apartment) for 20 years & my new kitchen for 6; basically, it's the only counter space so both have gotten a lot of use & I cut on it & set hot pots on it. I use mineral oil but after the 'new' wore off, I became lazy & oiled maybe twice a year without any bad side effects. The 2 big no-nos are letting water stand & using a serrated knife. Stains like beet juice or crushed raspberries can be a problem if not cleaned up immediately but maybe it's because I don't oil enough. For dough, I use a large cutting board (actually it is the sink cutout) on a table because it's lower & more comfortable for kneading but there's no problem with sticking. Usually I use flour or sometimes, EVOO but if I oiled more, I could probably do without anything. Personally, I'm not a fan of end grain blocks because they're too absorbant no matter how much they've been oiled & tend to pick up odors that linger for days. Shallots are the worst, LOL! I've never had a dark block so I don't really know how they would look after a while with heavy use but I would question how vibrant the wood will look if it isn't oiled regularly. I have a sneaky suspician it will be dull & faded like unfinished wood if the main use areas are not oiled every day or so. I could be wrong but it's something you probably should research before sinking a fortune in a piece of furniture quality wood. Another question you might ask if you're considering some of the dark woods that aren't naturally dark , i.e. oak. Has it been stained & if so, with what? Oak is very hard to stain using penetrating stains (I've refinished a lot of furniture) & the finish tends to set on top so I'd question if I wanted to cut food on it. Even if it's been treated somehow to age it, I suspect it will show knife marks. Whatever you decide, enjoy it. BB are very forgiving & can hold their own regardless of the abuse - just no wet feet!

I just built a 5" thick walnut end-grain butcher block for a client. I used plain mineral oil. I let it soak in a couple of times. I use bees wax on many of my furniture finishes but think it would be weird to cut and eat food on. I'm sure it's alright but I would just use the oil. Make sure it's pure bees wax if you do use it many have other chemicals in them. Also for my own use I wouldn't use anything but maple. It's what's been used forever and it is just a clean wood. All wood darkens with a finish on it especially oil and especiall end gain. John

My husband would prefer the local marble be used around the perimeter, which may need to happen because there's a chance the butcher block manufacturers won't ship it with the sink hole cut as it may not be stable enough, and then we're back to the same place we were at with the Ikea countertops. Well not quite, but still needing to find a finishing carpenter willing to make that cut. It turns out that not even the butcher block makers like cutting undermount sink holes. BUT... the marble would be standard 1.25" tall, and our cabinet boxes are 34" from the floor. The minimum height of the cooktop surface of the induction range we've purchased is 36". I feel like a 3/4" difference between the counter height and cooktop is more of a deal breaker for me than the chance of the butcher block getting gunky around the sink. I can get the butcher block at 1.75" so there would just be a 1/4" difference between the cooktop and countertop.