I've recently aquired a piece of board. It's about the width of
worktop but is old and made from solid pieces about 7" wide and 30mm
thick. I know I'm mixing units here, put it down to age. Anyway, the
boards are joined by having groves in both edges and a tongue of what
looks like pine inserted. The boards are hardwood, I suspect mahogany.
It looks like it was mass produced by machine.
The whole piece sands up beautifully but is quite heavy as you would
expect. It's now a bath side panel waiting it's finish.
I've not seen anything like this before. Anyone know what it's called
and used for? I thought of bar or counter tops but the end view with
the pine is not particularly attractive.

John

John wrote:
I've recently aquired a piece of board. It's about the width of
worktop but is old and made from solid pieces about 7" wide and 30mm
thick. I know I'm mixing units here, put it down to age. Anyway, the
boards are joined by having groves in both edges and a tongue of what
looks like pine inserted. The boards are hardwood, I suspect mahogany.
It looks like it was mass produced by machine.
The whole piece sands up beautifully but is quite heavy as you would
expect. It's now a bath side panel waiting it's finish.
I've not seen anything like this before. Anyone know what it's called
and used for? I thought of bar or counter tops but the end view with
the pine is not particularly attractive.

John

Its probably exactly what you think it is..a hardwood top made by tongue
and grooving thinner planks. Might be any one of some tropical hardwoods
- might even be cherry or something.

If there appears to be almost zero banding in the grain, that is
generally a sign of a tropical wood with no summer/winter variation in
growth. Mahogany - which covers a wide range of species - is typically
very smooth grained and somewhat reddish.

John wrote:
I've recently aquired a piece of board. It's about the width of
worktop but is old and made from solid pieces about 7" wide and 30mm
thick. I know I'm mixing units here, put it down to age. Anyway, the
boards are joined by having groves in both edges and a tongue of what
looks like pine inserted. The boards are hardwood, I suspect mahogany.
It looks like it was mass produced by machine.
The whole piece sands up beautifully but is quite heavy as you would
expect. It's now a bath side panel waiting it's finish.
I've not seen anything like this before. Anyone know what it's called
and used for? I thought of bar or counter tops but the end view with
the pine is not particularly attractive.

John

Sounds like 'butchers block' to me, see he
http://www.diy.com/sl/home-improveme...ers-Block.html

This is obviously a replica, but you get the drift

Thanks for the replies.
Knowing where it came from, I suspect it started as a lab bench top. I
suppose that's close to the buthchers block that Phil suggested. I
always thought they showed the end grain. It's certainly taking a nice
finish. It's a bit of a lump for a bath side but it should outlast me.

John

John wrote:
Thanks for the replies.
Knowing where it came from, I suspect it started as a lab bench top. I
suppose that's close to the buthchers block that Phil suggested. I
always thought they showed the end grain. It's certainly taking a nice
finish. It's a bit of a lump for a bath side but it should outlast me.

John


Lab benches were often teak