Walnut kitchen island

This is a piece that was built for a friend. They had wanted to replace their old damaged top with something more attractive. She wanted 2” thick walnut and in wide boards. Luckily I had found a bunch of boards at an auction 8-10 months ago. All 8/4 boards 9-11” wide. That worked great. I did cut out some knots and checks in the ends to maintain stability in the boards. The cutting board and trim was from some shorts I picked up at the yard on sale. The finish is Waterlox. I fought that a lot. I found if I applied it heavy like they want, I got beautiful results, but tons of micro-bubbles. So after a lot of calls to their tech dept and trying every applicator under the sun, I ended up wiping it on in thin coats, occasionally wet-sanding with 1000 to 1500 in between to remove lint. That seemed to work well. Was a major learning curve there. I loved the look and the durability of the waterlox, but not the application. I would probably still use it again believe it or not.

Before pics

Glue up

Original boards

Test fit

-- In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.