Makka

I have been tasked with preparing a VERY old and DRY Red Gum slab some 6' in Dia.
I have repaired any loose bark, bow tie wedged a large natural crack in the center of it and water blasted it.
Now ready to start sanding, but before getting too carried away I thought I would seek some advice on how to set the edges and whether to oil the timber in any way?
I want a natural finish not a polyurethane top.What is the best stain etc to use? Any help you could give me would be very much appreciated

Red gum is such a beautiful timber I can't imagine why you'd want to stain it?

Usually slab tops with bark attached are finished with a two pack pour on finish that sets like glass and holds the bark in place, but I don't know how well bark will stay on with an oil finish. Is there any reason the bark has to stay attached? I'm making a small natural edged shelf with an oil finish and the bark just looked, well, wrong, so it got removed pretty quickly.

Forum member LGS has a link to his website damnfinefurniture which explains in simple terms how to achieve an extremely good looking burnished oil finish, I tried it out on this shelf and was sufficiently impressed to decide to finish my kitchen benchtops using his method. Give it a go and see how it looks; just follow his instructions to the letter.

FWIW I also don't like poly finishes.

Thanks Chief
I am on to it