Thread: Finishing advice for Tassie oak built-in bench top

Test your finishing plans on a hidden bit or an offcut to make sure you get the effect you are after (it saves soooo much sanding if it's not quite what you want!).

And think long and hard about a butt join...they can be hard/impossible to do seamlessly, so it's better to make it into some sort of feature - this could be as simple as an inlay covering the butt join, or something as complex as creating a fake 'crack' which is pulled together with butterfly keys.

if you are going to stain the top, colour the Timbermate before using it as a grain filler

Thanks for the replies.
Good advice about testing on a hidden piece first. I'll try it on the underside first. Do you recommend the underside of timber be given a coat of poly at all or is it not needed? Thinking it might help with preventing timber expansion.
The timbermate I have is already tinted to match the Tassie oak. Are you suggesting I add some of wattyl stain to the timbermate prior to grain filling?

Always use the same finish on all surfaces to (hopefully) prevent warping due to uneven moisture loss/gain.

So I've just finished sanding each Tassie oak board with 180 grit and then grain filled with timbermate. We have decided to forgo the stain and just apply some oil based poly. Can I apply a coat of poly to the boards before gluing them together and filling the gaps with more timbermate then.another 1-2/layers of poly, or should I glue them together, crackfill and then apply the poly?

Cheers.

Originally Posted by Helmut

So I've just finished sanding each Tassie oak board with 180 grit and then grain filled with timbermate. We have decided to forgo the stain and just apply some oil based poly. Can I apply a coat of poly to the boards before gluing them together

NO
get the edges of teh boards straight and true and then glue them together

Originally Posted by Helmut

and filling the gaps with more timbermate

if you've done your edge jointing properly, there will be no gaps