Butcher Block Countertops

 When I built the butcher block countertops for my kitchen, the wood was too green. It shrunk in strange ways, and created a wavy surface. Bottom line, face grain countertops are not a good idea, at least from green lumber. 

So I decided to cut up some lumber for edge grain butcher block stock. The plan was to cut some to 1 7/8" wide, glue those wide sides together in sections that would still fit through the planer, then glue the sections together so I could get something about 26" deep by 28" wide and at least 1.5" thick.

Starting with a 16' white oak, 10' hickory, and 6' maple boards

cut them down to length & ripped to width first. Added some walnut and dogwood too

Take those sticks, turn on the side, find combination that gives me length/width needed

In the clamps with glue

Planed down, glued the sections together, cut to width, and sanded

added butcher block oil. Can you see the different types of wood?

Installed in my kitchen

If you can tell, the first 3 blocks are white oak, most of the general color stuff is white oak. After that, there is a slightly browner board, that is hickory. Then a quartersawn white oak with some visible medulary rays, a row of dogwood that I milled from a tree we had to take down. The walnut (dark brown) and maple (almost white) rows should be obvious. 

I think this patterned edge grain is a fantastic approach. It stays flat, holds up well under Kelley's cooking. Going to have to replace the rest of the countertops with this stuff