A lot depends on the quality of the timber, I would suggest looking at the actual tops rather than buying unseen.

A high quality worktop will be made from 5-6 wide boards that run the full length of the worktop and will be made from selected timber that matches for grain & colour.

On the other hand a cheaper top will be made up from narrow staves (strips) that are only 600-900mm long and you will get defects and in particular with walnut there will be some sapwood.

Out of interest, I fitted a kitchen where the client got all the materials from Ikea, their beech tops are very reasonably priced but made from timber that I would have cut out as waste if I was making the top.

There is a lot of upkeep with wooden tops, several oilings initially top & bottom then regular reoiling to keep them looking good. They can also be easily damaged by hot pans and constant contact with water.

Jason

Personally I'd be wary of walnut (and also oak) as a worktop material because walnut has a highish tanin content. That translates into timber which, if it gets wet and comes in contact with steel (even cheap stainless steel) or cast iron, will cause blackeoning of the metal (ferrous oxide) and produce indelible inky black stains in the timber.

Any timber top requires much more maintainance than an equivalent laminate top. You also ahve to be meticulous in wiping-up spillages of staining materials right away, so providing you are prepared to accept the overhead then I'd go ahead.

The other caveat is that the quality of tops varies tremendously. Ikea look OK, but as Jason says they look as though they're made-up from shorts and offcuts to some. Getting a top with lonfger/wider/thicker staves will cost more, so you pays yer money.....

Scrit

It's down south to us Lancys to, tha knaws.....

Quote:


Technically to match wood movement it should be a full worktop width mitre joint. In reality a butt joint with provision to allow for some movement will do the job. However, if your worktop comes with profiled edges you will need to do some form of mason's mitre joint. I'd stickwith conventional joiners simply because it is generally impossible to cramp-up anything the size of worktops in situ (unless you have paralign cramps which are seriously expensive)

Scrit

I agree about ikae worktops, they are rough as a bulls lug . They've been put through one of those giant belt sanders I think. The wood is a bit tatty with large amounts of brown filler etc, but I did manage to achiev a good result with them, plus why not use up "scrap" for something like that instead of produce mdf or something with it?
I just fitted 3 oak ones 2 months ago. I let them aclimatise for about 4 or 5 weeks. I got a good finish with my ECE primus (top rate piece of kit even if it is german) and home made cabinet scrapers. After several hours scraping my hands turned deep purple/black due to tannin They've had about 8 or 9 coats of oil (teak oil and danish also some boiled linseed, whatever was availiable). We've had no bother with stains etc. I wetted and raised the grain several times before oiling, final finish with finest emory papers, light sand after each oiling. I used a mason mitre with galvanised bolt clamps, plus a 3"x3/4" oak upstand plugged to the wall to cover any joint movement. I might get round to burnishing the surface, I tried that on some elm it looks great. Personally I like the lok of real wood any time even if its a bit tatty as with the ikea tops. It acquires character with all the dents and scrapes etc, chipboard ones look naff
Makes me laugh when you see designers on telly or folks on ebay selling a 20" wide board "suitable for a worktop". It'll be cupped as a banana in no time. At least thin boards like the ikea ones will be more stable.

oh the saga of wooden worktops. my kitchen is being fitted at the weekend but without the worktops i ordered they will be another six weeks!they are american walnut(junglans nigra)and i think the company supplying them is genuine.i have enough samples to build a shed,some of them are very nice but not the right colour but some are frankly bits of obscure tropical softwood stained thro and called 'african walnut'.four oaks timber in brum were very helpful,they said walnut is a temperate hardwood so it is not likely to grow well in deepest africathey also pointed out the poor quality construction in some of the samples,even to the point of packing the staves with plastic to achieve a good fit.hopefully when they are fitted they will look the part and be practical enough

best regards

wretch