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7LeagueBoots t1_j6ctphb wrote

Reply to comment by Laurenhynde82 in Oiling wooden worktops - some areas won’t take the oil, can anyone advise? by Laurenhynde82

So, let me preface this with the, "I'm not a professional," caveat.

That doesn't look like butcherblock. Butcherblock is generally end grain oriented. This is made more like a hardwood floor, with the grain running parallel to the surface.

In a situation like that it's much more difficult for oil to penetrate the wood, and it doesn't look like you have entire pieces where adsorption is low, just sections of many pieces where it's slow.

This could be due to any number of things, but if they've been hard used some of the pores could have been crushed and are slower to adsorb fluids as a result (I used to work in a winery, and doing this intentionally was one of the ways you repaired leaking barrels). It can also easily be simply because of variations on the seasonality of wood (wood cut this way can wind up cutting within a single season's growth, and wood density varies a lot between seasons depending on water availability, temperature, wind, etc, which in turn will mean differences on how easy it is for oil to penetrate).

This doesn't look at all like a problem to me, just something that may take a bit more time and applications than you initially intended.

Apply it, and periodically give it a reapplication. Maybe every few months for 3 or 4 cycles after the initial oilings.

Someone who is a professional in this should weight in and give their opinion, but that's my take from a number of years of non-professionally working with wood.

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bad_at_hearthstone t1_j6cxw1c wrote

I am also a non-professional wood botherer and this take is mostly right. The “mostly” part is that edge grain butcher block Is A Thing, at least from the perspective of companies trying to sell countertops. Home Depot sells long grain stave countertop as “butcher block” with no mention of grain anywhere. Armani Woodworking (no relation) offers edge grain butcher block countertops with end grain offered as a premium option, though it’s hard to read their writeup and view the two options as the same product. John Boos has both edge and end grain countertops, but everything they sell as a “butcher block” has end grain top (and this is as it should be.).

Marketeering appropriation of the term “butcher’s block” aside, though, these are still pretty good countertops and your wood care advice to OP is spot on.

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Laurenhynde82 OP t1_j6cz4rn wrote

That’s super helpful, thank you. Happy to keep applying. I did a bit more work for the denibbing pad as I think maybe some of the bits weren’t as smooth as they could be but don’t think it’s made much difference to be honest.

Apologies for incorrect terminology - I didn’t install it, so I’m guessing really!

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