Jim Brown wrote:

Gentlemen and you know who you are,

I am building a countertop with alternating cherry and walnut strips
glued together. Due to the sink in the middle there will be some
water splashing around. I like the natural look of walnut and cherry
so no staining. Planning to use many coats of polyurethane for both
top and bottom surfaces. Water based or oil based? Anything better?
Since I have little experience with wood finishing, please do not skip
any steps you deem as obvious.

Peace.

Jim

It's amazing how much water accumulates around a kitchen sink. I put in
a white oak butcher block style counter top in my previous house. That
was a once in a lifetime experience. Get the hardest, nastiest,
waterproof stuff that you can find to coat it with and renew it often.
I used oil based poly and it took a couple months for dark spots to
start showing. Sand, sand, poly, poly. Then sand, sand, poly poly in a
few more months. Perhaps I should have tried a marine type varnish or
asphalt. In short, it was a lot of work and it didn't look all that
great. Perhaps you and SWMBO are better at keeping wet stuff off the
counter than we were, but then that's what counters are for.

This time I went with the quartz based stuff (Silestone, Caesarstone,
etc.). Impervious to anything after almost two years. Yea, stamp,
whistle and other expressions of childish glee.

mahalo,
jo4hn