Re-purposing found butcher block wood.

July 24, 2009 5:58 PM

Carpentry-Filter: Can you help me identify this butcher block style wood, and figure out how to best cut, sand, and finish it for my project? Pics inside.

I pulled this wood out of the dumpster at school. Apparently it was used as a large table top. At least some of it goes together, but broke/split during removal. Pics 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. It looks a little rough in the pics, but it's mostly smooth and solid.

I've been looking for some butcher block style wood for a while now as I really want to build floating shelves just like these in my bathroom. With the left over wood I may build a work bench or even use it for an actual cutting board.

As you can see in the pics the wood is lightly colored. It's very heavy and 1 & 3/4" thick.

So my first question is this: what type of wood is this? Would you consider it "real" butcher block, or is there a better name for it?

Second, how best to cut this? I'm thinking circular saw, but do I need any type of special blade or adjustment?

Third, what about sanding? I don't want to do it by hand, but I'm perplexed by what type of sander I should buy. Do I need a belt sander? An orbit? Palm? Detail?

Lastly, how can I finish it in a way that will bring out the natural wood, perhaps darken it some, and protect it in the high humidity environment of my bathroom? I won't be using food on this stuff, so the oil / beeswax treatment isn't necessary here.

Thanks for any and all advice and tips. I'm very excited to start working on this.

posted by wfrgms to home & garden (13 comments total)

I would guess that it's Maple. I remember a lot of old tabletops like that in school. You can cut it with a circular saw. Sanding should be done with an orbital sander, if you don't have one you can pick one up at a pawn shop for under $15. As for finishing, go pick out your stain and have at it. Then cover in poly. I wouldn't go too dark with the stain though, part of the beauty of maple is the mellow grain sheen.
posted by sanka at 6:13 PM on July 24

My husband the woodworker sayz:

This looks like maple. This is butcher block. Depending upon what this has been treated with previously, it may not take a stain without heavy sanding to remove previous treatment. In this case, it would be easier to leave it the existing color.

Circular saw is fine, make sure you have a sharp blade (40 tooth to 60 tooth carbide blade will do it).

Random orbit sander to fair out the surface. 220 grit before applying a finish. If you plan to stain, use a water-based stain and then lightly sand by hand with 220 grit after it dries. (Woodworker husband says there is no escaping the hand sanding)

Whether or not you use a stain, use sanding sealer (Zissner is good), then sand with 220 grit lightly by hand. Then apply Deft Clear Wood Finish; at least 3 coats to finish. No need to sand in between, as long as you apply coats within one hour of the last coat.
posted by jeoc at 6:15 PM on July 24

It doesn't seem highly figured enough to be maple, but that is a possibility. Many table tops are made of maple. But it could easily be poplar or ash, too, as the unfinished grain in picture #3 has the slightly gray tint of poplar. Maple is generally harder and much denser than poplar, birch, aspen or even ash.

If it is solid wood throughout, then, yes, I think you could describe it fairly as "butcher block," although real butcher block is usually thicker.

As for cutting, a circular saw should be adequate. Rip blade for cuts with the grain, and a crosscut blade for sawing across the grain without chipping.

A belt sander takes skill to work, without leaving grooves in the wood. And you shouldn't need to take off much, so a belt sander is probably overkill. And orbital sander to get through the existing finish should be fine, followed by raising the grain, and finish hand sanding. Then, either a stain and polymerizing oil finish (or even just the oil, if you want a mid-range "golden" finish, or a stain and a spray lacquer or polyurethane finish. Finish material is dictated by your ultimate purpose for the table top, and whether you plan to clean a lot with water, as in a kitchen application.
posted by paulsc at 6:26 PM on July 24

Looks like maple, which is not generally figured, especially when used for butcher block tabletops and countertops. The figured stuff finds its way into finer furniture.

Woodweb is a good source for this kind of question.

Refinishing Lacquered Maple.

Toning Blotchy Maple.

Good luck. Looks like a fun project!
posted by notyou at 7:00 PM on July 24

i vote for maple. i think you'll find that you won't be easily able to sand down the old stain and finish to bare wood with an orbital sander. i think you want to fall in love with the old stain and whatever defects are there and just work on redoing the finish.

sand up from 120 grit to 220 grit with an orbital sander. put on three coats of a water-based polyurethane. hand sand the first and second coats with 220 after they are dry to the touch.
posted by geos at 7:09 PM on July 24

Maple for sure. It is edge grain butcher block, although I think of true butcher block as being end grain.

The others have you covered on working it. I love working with maple - you can put a serious razor edge on it. When finishing it, I prefer little or no color to the wood. I prefer water based polyurethane or Danish Oil.
posted by plinth at 7:10 PM on July 24

These are maple butcher blocks. Since you found them in a school dumpster, they are either chopping tables from the kitchen, or workbench tops. If they came out of the kitchen, they have been treated with mineral oil, and trying to finish with anything else won't work, short of taking the top 1/4" off. If they were tabletops, sanding and a few coats of poly will work fine.
posted by Marky at 8:40 PM on July 24

Yep, concurring with maple.... possibly rock maple. Nice find!

I have little to add other than the fact that butcher blocks are traditionally oriented end-grain uppermost... here's an example. If you wanted to achieve this look, it would be relatively easy to cut across the grain to make 1¾″ wide pieces, re-orient them, and glue the pieces together. If you're accurate (I'd recommend using a guide for the circular saw), it should reduce sanding also... you want to avoid sanding off varnish, it's messy work. (Either way, please remember to use a dust mask when sanding and, ideally, when cutting).

To sand the new face of the butcher block flat you'll want to use a circular sander, the larger diameter the better - 6″ to 8″ would be ideal.

I hope this helps!
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 9:25 PM on July 24

What everyone else said about it likely being maple, though there are some other blond woods that would be hard to differentiate via a picture on the web. If you really want to know, go to a woodworking business (like Woodcraft, Rockler or some local non-chain store - not a big box) and take a little off-cut with you. Odds are they'll be able to tell you immediately.

Butcher block is usually end grain, like Bora Horza Gobuchul said so that, as you're there chopping meat, you're not also cutting the fibers of your cutting block and putting wood chips in your food.

A circular saw would be good for cutting. You're going to probably want some sort of edge guide too. I'd also spring for a new blade for this since it's going to tougher going than you're used to and a sharp blade is less likely to tear out.

A six inch random orbit sander is probably what you want. That being said, if you have to remove any wood, look into card scrapers. The guy who introduced me to them said, "You'll never go back to sandpaper." While not 100% true, I can say that if I'm trying to get planer chatter out of oak, I'd rather do it in ten minutes with the age-old hand tool that makes minimal dust than an hour with the annoyingly loud power tool that excels in producing fine dust. But maybe that's just me.

If you're going to edge glue any chunks of this you might also want to invest in a plane and means to sharpen it so you can true up the edges since, if they bow, you're never going to get a solid joint. You could get a super-modern imperial battle cruiser of a plane (for about the same price as a power joiner) but you can probably find a decent #6, 7 or 8 bench plane on E-bay for $25-50 if you keep your eyes open.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 3:52 AM on July 25

Yep, hard maple. A circular saw with a good (carbide) blade, and guided by a straightedge clamped to the workpiece, is the appropriate way to slice and dice them.

The appropriate methods for sanding and refinishing depend on how fine a job you want to do with it. If you need to take off a lot of material to get past scratches and other surface defects, a belt sander is the best handheld power tool for the job, but they are (as noted above) not the easiest tool for a newbie to wrestle with. A good orbital sander with a variety of grits of paper is probably a better choice. If you diligently work your way through the grits, you should be able to eliminate noticeable scratches without hand-sanding.

Disagree w/Marky about the mineral oil concern. Looking at the freshly cut edges of those planks, the finish does not appear to have penetrated at all and should be easy to remove. You will have to do a very thorough job of this to facilitate subsequent staining.

Also worth noting is that the floating shelves you linked to were built incorrectly; the grain should be running the other direction, both for strength and to prevent the shelves from damaging the closet they're trapped in if they expand with an increase in humidity.
posted by jon1270 at 4:01 AM on July 25

I want to thank everyone for their responses.

So I'm off to pickup an orbit sander to give it a go. Luckily I have way more wood than I need, so I'll be able to experiment.

Some of the wood has a really nice patina of scratches and dents. I don't really want to take that out, but I do want to get rid of some of the more random marks. I think I have the info here to get started.

I'm really excited to start working on it. Thanks for the advice and encouragement!
posted by wfrgms at 1:08 PM on July 25

1 3/4" thick? Those are going to be some heavy shelves.
posted by Daddy-O at 1:29 PM on July 25

Be careful with the circular saw, as sometimes blocks like that are held together with nails you can't see. It's not especially dangerous, just wear eye protection and prepare for ruined blades.

Also, there's a couple different kinds of butcher block. End grain is considered the best, but you'll more commonly encounter the laminated strip kind. Both are fine for most purposes, since very few of us are actually butchers.
posted by electroboy at 4:49 PM on July 25