Working with old dry wood

If I were doing the build I would use wipe-on poly for the topcoat. It goes on easily and dries quickly. It will provide the table top with surface protection, it is a relatively hard finish and is unaffected by water. Its biggest drawback is that it is not as easy to repair as other finishes but, to me, its water resistance gives it the edge. But I would topcoat all surfaces so that subsequent moisture absorption will be uniform for the entire table top.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

My wood crafting style is rustic.
I use a lot of old and re-purposed wood.

You bring back some of the vitality of dry wood by first treating it with a drying oil.
I use a mixture of one part pure tung oil with two parts mineral spirits.
Be sure to use real tung oil, not “tung oil finish”, which, depending on the brand may not even contain tung oil.

Apply the tung oil mixture liberally, let it soak in for about 20 to 30 minutes, then wipe it dry.
Let it cure and dry for about 2 or 3 days.
If you want to use an oil stain, apply it now.

When you are ready to finish, first seal the wood with unwaxed Shellac, such as Zinsser SealCoat.

Then apply a top coat of your favorite finish.
I generally use polyurethane or a wiping varnish.

-- Randy, Rustic Artisan, a family tradition. (No PM's - auto-deleted.) - "I am a seeker, not a follower."

you can’t go wrong with the pure tung oil, i use it on pretty much everything i build for myself. i use close to the same mixture except mine is equal parts pure raw tung oil, BLO and poly. you get the warmth of tung oil and the protection of the poly without the build of straight poly.

-- Joey, Magee, Ms http://woodnwaresms.com

What ever you do to the table top, you really should do to the entire table. A friend of mine varnished a table and only did the table top surface. Moisture was allowed to penetrate the table top from the underside through the concrete slab of his house, and the table warped so bad that he had to redo the table top.

I like straight tonge oil because it only gets better over time, and a new coat years from now will only add to the look.

-- Brian, Lebanon PA, If you aren’t having fun doing it, find something else to do.

Excellent. Thank you all for the comments and suggestions. I like the tung oil suggestion…I’ve used that finishing other projects and love the look of the finish.

One other question…from Joey’s post, what is “BLO”?

BLO is boiled linseed oil.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

I recently made a dining table out of 200-300 year old oak planks. The finish for the whole piece is BLO with a coat of paste wax. In my experience, BLO will really darken old pine to a nice color and accentuate features such as old saw marks, dings, etc on the surface. Paste wax will give you a short term seal that can be easily replaced as the water resistance wears out. Plain old minway poly is also a great option if you don’t want to deal with the wax or you want a glossy film coat.