Conlad, I make gallery furniture including $60,000 conference tables and $30,000 entryways.
Sealing wood will not keep it from expending/contracting with humidity. It just slows it down. Air dried is always best but it has to accommodate to the environment for at least three years. Kiln dried is faster but tends to case harden and can do some very strange things when cut due to tensions created in the drying process. Very few of us have the luxury of using air dried wood.
Real butcher block has an end grain face and is very unstable with humidity changes. As long as it is not trapped it is fine, for cutting board use. No self respecting wood worker in his right mind would use it in cabinetry. What most people call butcher block is butte joined long grain narrow boards which may or may not be stable depending on how the wood is cut, joined and what species is being used. A panel made this way using quarter sawn mahogany will be very stable and would make a great rack if you could afford it. Any quarter sawn wood with the grain oriented up and down in the panel will do very well as the panel will change in thickness with humidity instead of width as you would see with flat sawn wood. However no good woodworker would trap a solid wood panel in a frame. They would float it to give it room to expand and contract.
In an environment that has deep humidity changes it is best to use a plywood construction with solid wood edging. I have made panels 2 inches thick with a 1/4 inch thick surface veneer that are still doing well after 28 New England Winters (my front doors).
If you like the look, Mahogany and Teak are the best woods to use in this application as they are the most stable. Maple is the most unstable. Oak and Walnut are in the middle, white oak being the best. It is important that the grain be oriented in the same direction throughout or the board will fall apart in time. Just look at the end grain. It should all be pointed in roughly the same direction. Oil is the best finish in this application. Surface finishes like lacquer and polyurethane will crack eventually. IMHO polyurethane is the worst finish ever concocted by man. It looks awful and is a PITA to refinish.
If you have your eye on something send me a photo and I will tell you what I think.
Mike
Sealing wood will not keep it from expending/contracting with humidity. It just slows it down. Air dried is always best but it has to accommodate to the environment for at least three years. Kiln dried is faster but tends to case harden and can do some very strange things when cut due to tensions created in the drying process. Very few of us have the luxury of using air dried wood.
Real butcher block has an end grain face and is very unstable with humidity changes. As long as it is not trapped it is fine, for cutting board use. No self respecting wood worker in his right mind would use it in cabinetry. What most people call butcher block is butte joined long grain narrow boards which may or may not be stable depending on how the wood is cut, joined and what species is being used. A panel made this way using quarter sawn mahogany will be very stable and would make a great rack if you could afford it. Any quarter sawn wood with the grain oriented up and down in the panel will do very well as the panel will change in thickness with humidity instead of width as you would see with flat sawn wood. However no good woodworker would trap a solid wood panel in a frame. They would float it to give it room to expand and contract.
In an environment that has deep humidity changes it is best to use a plywood construction with solid wood edging. I have made panels 2 inches thick with a 1/4 inch thick surface veneer that are still doing well after 28 New England Winters (my front doors).
If you like the look, Mahogany and Teak are the best woods to use in this application as they are the most stable. Maple is the most unstable. Oak and Walnut are in the middle, white oak being the best. It is important that the grain be oriented in the same direction throughout or the board will fall apart in time. Just look at the end grain. It should all be pointed in roughly the same direction. Oil is the best finish in this application. Surface finishes like lacquer and polyurethane will crack eventually. IMHO polyurethane is the worst finish ever concocted by man. It looks awful and is a PITA to refinish.
If you have your eye on something send me a photo and I will tell you what I think.
Mike