Custom bar top

This is a project that I did for a friend of mine that he wanted in his new home. The bar top is quarter-sawn American red gum with a piano finish applied. The apoxy clear was finished and buffed to the glass like finish just like doing a custom paint job. I used to do paint & body & custom paint in my younger days and I guessed that the same finish could be applied to wood. It worked out beautifully. As you can see, I like working with red gum. You get this flame in the grain of older trees when they have matured to about 15” or more. Red gum has to be quarter-sawn to retian the stability, though. It was a favored furniture wood in the late 1800’s and into the first part of the 20th century by wood workers. It is a mediuim to hard density wood with a tight inter-woven grain. It sands and works well and takes just about any finish as long as it is a clear finish, but then again, who wants to stain a wood that has such a natural color.