how would you flatten an old butcher block?

Frank Fusco

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Mountain Home, Arkansas
A friend of mine owns a flea market/craft shop. Recently a customer sold him a large, very old, professional butcher block. It was end grain construction and had, obviously, seen many years of use. The top was worn badly with wear, at least, two inches deep in the top. Looked hopeless to me. But he resold it quickly to a guy who said he could flatten and restore the top. I have been pondering just how he did this. All ideas I could come up with seemed impractical and tons of work. BTW, this one was probably 36"X36" sq. and it was on legs that didn't look removable.
 
Well, for damage that deep (assuming the overall thing is thick enough to take it), I would take an alaskan timber mill type jig and simply slice off the damaged top with a chain saw. Then clamp sacrificial wood around all sides to prevent splitting and use either a real good, sharp plane and/or a belt sander to flatten out the chainsaw marks.
 
Butcher block

I would do it like Randy said. We do log slices and natural edge tables with a router and homemade wooden sled. As there is time someday we want to make one of steel and bearings.
 
WITH A ROUTER AND A SLED. ATTACH A CURB AROUND THE BLOCK AND USE A ROUTER AND SLED TO MOVE ACROSS THE CURB AND FLATTEN THE TOP.

Same here. I have used that method before and it makes a super level surface. I used a 3/4" bit and it took a while. Next time I am going to use a 1 1/2" bit but I did not have one at the time.
 
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