Hi all from a newcomer - renovating the house, restoring the furniture

Hi all, I'm doing a light touch renovation on my first home, learning some basic carpentry, and getting back into my love of restoring timber furniture. My next project is to make my own timber benchtops. Thought I'd buy lengths of some different species, butt join them in random order, sand sand and sand some more, and finish with clear polyurethane. I'm going for a look that's in between rustic country and retro milk bar - lots of white, splashes of aqua and just a pinch of red. I loved woodwork at school and am currently on the lookout for a short course in basic joinery so I can go from restoring furniture to making it, just simple pieces like console tables, shelving, etc.

Welcome to the forum.

Exactly how random as the top you make would also need to have consideration to the amount of wood movement.

If it long grain to long grain or end grain to end grain that should be ok but when you have end grain to long grain it does have some consideration.

Thanks Christos, good point. I think I'll lay the planks all the same way, to get a subtle stripe effect.

Sounds like a lot of fun, I am well down that road albeit in restoring a very early colonial-regency farm house. One thing though I noticed in your original post re your bench tops. If I may make a suggestion, please re-consider the use of polyurethane. If you are looking for the country look and/or are going to make use of some nice timbers, such a finish is really the wrong material of choice.

There are many better alternatives including tung oil, organoil etc. Poly finishes are so plastic in appearance, and once worn are aweful to work with. Basically you need to completely strip them back, whereas with tung oil etc all that is needed is a very occasional re-coat. They really are so much more friendly to work with and last well. They also give a more natural finish to your wood. Up to you of course but thought worth suggesting.

Have fun and look forward to seeing some pictures if you can post them.

Just keep in mind that different species have different expansion and contraction rates, so you might get gaps opening up over time.

Thanks for the tips, tung oil sounds like a good idea, and perhaps I'll scrap the idea of using different types of timber - I want some character, but not gaps. Can anyone recommend a species that makes great benchtops? My floor is mountain ash with a touch of American oak stain in the first coat, but I'd like to "complement" rather than "match".

welcome to the forum

Welcome aboard. Hope I get to see this top when it is done. Sounds right up my alley.

G'Day & Welcome to a top forum.
I think you'll find quite a few folk from the the Victoria on the forum and the rest of the world.
You'll find a heap of helpful & knowledgeable blokes & ladies on the forum and for most very willing to assist.
Make sure you show off your handiwork as everyone loves a photo, especially WIP photos with build notes.
Enjoy the forum.
Enjoy your woodwork.
Cheers crowie

I would not use tung oil for bench tops, it is toxic that is why I never use it for any of my turning, floors fine but for a bench top I would highly go against it.

From my understanding let alone experience the comment re tung oil being toxic is incorrect. It is a natural oil extracted from the tung tree, and at most could be a problem for people who have allergies to nuts. Modern tung oil products have a stabiliser product added to it as natural tung oil when it hardens with a slight crinkle finish. Products such as Feast Watsons tung oil has some poly added to it. I have used this on my kitchen benches and bathroom vanity tops for years. The kitchen bench top at home was coated 11 years ago and only now needs some light rubbing back and re-coating. All my floors have been coated with similar finishes. It's good stuff.

Tung oil is food safe.

Source: Which Finishes Are Food Safe?, by Jonathan Binzen, Fine Woodworking, March/April 1998, Pg67

Like any oil, some formulations may have metallic driers, but you'd have to be cooking with the stuff for this to be an issue.

Tung oil may cause a minor reaction to people who are allergic to tree nuts. From the Sydney Children's Hospital Factsheet on Tree Nut Allergy:
"There is no research to confirm that severe reactions can occur by touching or smelling tree nuts without nut ingestion."

Tung oil is not listed in their run through, so the best I can offer there is that from a study published in the British Medical Journal in 1997, in a test group with known allergies to tree nuts, none of the test group had a reaction to tung nut oil that had been refined.