We bought a hardwood table and are trying to tidy it up. It’s bit of a mess so we’re sanding it down, starting with coarse paper and working down to fine.

It has come cracks that need filling; any advice for that?

But, mainly, I’m looking for ideas in treatment for the wood. I want to do as little as possible to change the appearance, but it’s going to have a hard life as our dining room table.

I don’t mind refinishing and retreating it every couple of years, but don’t want it to look a total mess after the first time a bit of water or gravy gets spilled on it.

Linseed oil?

Hi @miketually,

Do you know what kind of timber it is?

For the cracks, depending on how big they are, I’d go with a two-part filler. Apply it before the medium sanding. You can get different shades (although, not a huge choice, maybe light (pine-ish), medium (oak-ish) and dark brown/red-ish). Make it up in golf-ball size amounts as it cures quite quickly. Hard as nails when it goes off – I use it for filling knots in floors, skirting boards etc.

Thanks, chap.

No idea what wood it is. There are some pics on Twitter:

Legs: https://twitter.com/miketually/status/252086195507568642/photo/1
Top: https://twitter.com/miketually/status/251990729969266688/photo/1
Top, close-up: https://twitter.com/miketually/status/251990122470453248/photo/1
More top: https://twitter.com/miketually/status/259995263526113280

TimberTect from Conservation Chemicals.

Superseded my favourite Osmo Polyx by a long way. This stuff is tough!

Order directly from C-C, Google should find them. Tell them what its for, they may advise their worktop top-coat.

I would have recommended Osmo Polyx mike, but Anthony possibly knows more to be fair.

Make sure you dig any loose material out from the cracks before filling though and vacuum them out really well.

It’ll look great with a coat of oil, but beware, an oil will darken it down a bit.

Osmo is still amazing stuff, I love it, for most Joinery its my go to finish. But surfaces that catch the light really show up scratches and can look shabby within weeks. Sadly when sat at a dining table under electric lighting they stand out.

We tried pouring boiling water straight out the kettle onto the TimberTect and it was like, er, water off a ducks back!

No recoat needed. Ever (according to the blurb, not used it long enough to properly test that!).

My first thought was Wallnut, but really hard to tell from a photo. Hope it’s not Rubberwood and that you’ve not spent a lot of time on something that’s really not that worthwhile!

Random nail: https://twitter.com/miketually/status/260036906337832961
Ready to fill: https://twitter.com/miketually/status/260038914251841536

I bought some 2-part filler from Wickes. Have filled one crack and just waiting for it to set before sanding…

Might sand the filler by hand, rather than using the orbital sander.

If you sand the filler with the orbital (which tbh, I would) don’t get sketchy if it suddenly turns a lighter colour (the dark brown/red stuff goes pink when machine sanded), it’ll darken back when you apply the oil. 🙂

Did a test bit (top middle in the photo below), then used the orbital.

A little bit of filling: https://twitter.com/miketually/status/260056141155926016

Ran out of light, so had to stop part-way through sanding off the filler. Looking okay though: https://twitter.com/miketually/status/260076738191691776

Realised that we still have some leftover worktop oil in the garage; no idea what it is, it’s whatever Wren supply. Might just use that on the table top, but applied more thinly than on the worktops. That seems to manage okay on our worktops, and they get more hammer than the table will get.

Forgot to update this.

The table’s finished. I just got some Danish Oil from Wickes, so the filler didn’t colour, but the effect’s quite nice.

https://twitter.com/miketually/status/264319850896318464
https://twitter.com/miketually/status/264324758978560001

Thanks for the advice.