“I am building a bar top from 8/4 Walnut for my son’s new home, and he wants to have a very natural finish on it – no film finish allowed. My first thought was to use BLO, but some research has led me to think that Pure Tung Oil might provide better protection. Is Pure Tung Oil a better option than BLO for an open grained wood like Walnut?”

Tung Oil and BLO

When it comes to protection, boiled linseed oil (BLO) and pure tung oil are pretty similar. One important thing they have in common is that neither one offers a great deal of protection. If you have to choose between the two, I would say to go for the BLO since its cheaper. BLO does is said to “yellow” a little more over time when compared to tung oil, but that is a moot point with respect to walnut.

Now obviously your son is the boss here, right? But indulge me while I make a small suggestion. An pure oil finish will certainly be better than nothing at all, but for a bartop, your son might regret this decision after the first few spills. I can totally understand why he doesn’t want a film finish though. Personally, I hate the look of those super thick bartop finishes (epoxy). If someone wants that much protection, they should just put down a piece of glass or simply use something other than wood (can you smell the contempt? hehe). But keep in mind this isn’t an all or none proposition and you can achieve a compromise between the highly protective plastic look and the barely protected natural look.

The Oil/Varnish Compromise

So my suggestion would be to try to achieve the best of both worlds. Give the bar top a very natural-looking finish, while imparting a great deal more protection than what you would receive from an oil alone. There are a few products on the market today that contain oil and varnish together, like Watco Danish Oil. Because there is so much oil in the mix, you would have to put on about 4 or 5 coats before you really start to get an appreciable film. However, if you apply 2-3 coats, the wood will retain the natural look while protecting the surface with at least some varnish. If you go with a matte or satin formulas, I think your son will be even happier with the end result as it won’t have the eye-glaring reflective qualities of a typical gloss concoction.

One of the great advantages to using an oil/varnish blend is you can monitor the surface after each coat and simply stop when you have the look you want. Dilute the mix with mineral spirits if you want even more fine control. Also keep in mind that you can actually make your own oil/varnish blend by mixing 1/3 mineral spirits, 1/3 BLO (or tung oil), and 1/3 polyurethane.

Either way, make sure you sand lightly between coats to keep the finish nice and smooth. After the final coat, either sand with 1200 grit paper or buff with 0000 steel wool. The wood will not only look natural, but will easily repel the occasional spill.

Related Resources:

Oil Finish Basics (Video)
Make Your Own Oil/Varnish Blend

Here’s a little background on my project. My friend, Karen, had a friend of hers designed a table and mirror to install behind the built-in bar in her basement. Based on her design, I came up with the dimensions and prepared a cut list.

I had to match the finish to the rest of the paneling and the bar in the basement. I tried several types of wood but the best match was with birch. The top ended up being 85″ long and 16.25″ wide and a full 1.5″ thick. After gluing up the top, I ran it through my drum sander to flatten and achieve final thickness. Next came the legs, 3″ square 36″ long. I had to then engineer how to fit the two shelves around the legs. I remembered how to utilize sticks to wrap around the legs and then using a flush trim bit cut a pattern out of 1/2″ plywood. After cutting the corners of my pattern square with a flush cut saw, I tried a fit around the legs…perfect tight fit. I then set the legs on the top to determine their placement. After that, I transferred marks to 3/4″ birch plywood and using the pattern, I used a jig-saw and rough cut the leg openings. I left the plywood long on both ends to hold the legs in place while I measured for the aprons. The plan called for 1.5″ thick shelves. After I cut the shelves to length and cutting the 45 degree angle at the left end, I used 3/4″ thick stock and cut a rabbet in which the plywood shelves could rest. I wrapped the plywood giving it the appearance of being 1.5″ thick and it also gave the shelves a lot of rigidity. Next came cutting the aprons which I would attach with loose tenons cut with my Festool Domino. I also had to fit in a piece of wood between the bottom of the aprons at the right side for the chrome wire glass holders. With the frame, I needed to fit a 60″ x 30″ mirror in the opening and below the mirror was a 60″ x 12″ section of 1″x2″ colored glass tile. I attached a 1/4″ piece of cement board on a 1/2″ piece of plywood, applied the tile and then grouted with sand free grout. After seeing how thick the tile was, I had to change plans and use 1.25″ thick stock for the frame. I cut a 1″ x 1/2″ deep rabbet on the back of the frame to fit 1/2″ plywood which I attached with 1″ screws. I cut a double rabbet on the bottom piece of the frame for the tile so I could snug up the frame piece to the tile. All connections were reinforced with 8mm dominos. That sure makes it easy. Next step was a dry fit to ensure that everything fit properly. Then I glued up the frame but due to the size of the table, I decided to assemble the table in Karen’s basement. I never would have gotten the assembled table up my basement steps. After staining everything to match a sample that I made early in the process to match the existing stain in Karen’s basement, I sealed with a coat of shellac and then 3 coats of General Finishes semi-gloss top coat. It was a fun and challenging project to build and the best thing is that Karen loves it. Here are some pictures of the in process and final installed table and mirror.