Ash for kitchen work tops

[Danavan]

I'm thinking of alaskan milling some ash for kitchen work tops.

Never done this before. A few questions. What minimum depth can I get away with? Danish oil treatment?

Thanks in advance.

[Wendelspanswick]

I made ash worktops for our old house and although it looked good to start with we had awful problems with the area round the sink going black with mould. The tops were given several coats of Danish oil but if I was to do it again I would use something more durable.

[agg221]

Ash is a difficult one to use for worktops as the grain is very open and needs to be well filled if you don't want to leave pockets where dirt collects (just look at an ash floor after a few months).

 

Like any wooden worktop, it needs huge numbers of coats of Danish oil - at least three all round before fitting, six on the ends, then another three on the top after fitting, then weekly for the first six weeks, then every three months.

 

The thinnest commercial worktops are finished at 27mm but 40mm looks a lot better. To get that, if you are planning on using boards over 100mm wide or so I would want to start at 35mm/50mm respectively to allow for drying and planing. If you can quartersaw then I might go a bit lower than that, say 32mm/45mm, but no thinner or you will end up with a lot of waste once you cut the cupping out.

 

Alec

[Danavan]

Thanks for the advice wendelspanswick. Will have to cut some more durable ones down with access to get it out in sizes I want.

[Danavan]

Ash is a difficult one to use for worktops as the grain is very open and needs to be well filled if you don't want to leave pockets where dirt collects (just look at an ash floor after a few months).

 

Like any wooden worktop, it needs huge numbers of coats of Danish oil - at least three all round before fitting, six on the ends, then another three on the top after fitting, then weekly for the first six weeks, then every three months.

 

The thinnest commercial worktops are finished at 27mm but 40mm looks a lot better. To get that, if you are planning on using boards over 100mm wide or so I would want to start at 35mm/50mm respectively to allow for drying and planing. If you can quartersaw then I might go a bit lower than that, say 32mm/45mm, but no thinner or you will end up with a lot of waste once you cut the cupping out.

 

Alec

 

Thanks for all the info Alec. Just finished reading another post and yours also backs that up. Back to looking out for some more suitable wood.

[roys]

Beech would probably be a better and readily available. Nice and tight grained.

[Danavan]

Beech would probably be a better and readily available. Nice and tight grained.

 

Cheers roys. Danish oil treatment too?

[roys]

Cheers roys. Danish oil treatment too?

 

Yes loads of it, as agg said earlier, wooden work tops need loads of treatments and loads of maintenance, too much for my liking.

[dirtybiker]

Forget Danish oil !

Just use Sadolin PV 67. Finishes any wooden worktop perminatly.

Jobs a goodun.

DB

[TGB]

I can understand about areas around sink absorbing water, even after several applications of oil. If timber is going to be soaked on a regular basis, (such as canoe equipment or the like; the golden rule of application is:

 

Once a day for a week

Once a week for a month

One a month for a year

And then once-twice a year every year thereafter.

 

Thinning the very first coat by approx. 30%. Any crosscuts need special attention on each application.

 

Maybe around a sink wouldn't need quite that amount. But several coats and then nowt, just isn't going to do the job.

Edited October 16, 2016 by TGB