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While designing this bench, I recalled something from my days in the kitchen cabinet business: One of the most common kitchen renovations is countertop replacement, and more and more homeowners are discarding their gorgeous old solid-maple butcher-block tops. I got lucky on my third phone call and found a shop in the city’s historical district that sold me an 8'-long section of 1½"-thick butcher block for just $10.

It took only a few minutes of trimming to make the butcher-block worktop (piece 1). I rough cut the blank a bit oversize with a circular saw, after first scoring with a utility knife to avoid tearout. Then, I clamped on a straightedge and trimmed the top to final dimensions with a straight bit chucked in my router. During this process, I cut across the grain first and then with the grain—which virtually eliminates blowout on the corners.

If you prefer to build a top from scratch, make sure the quarter-sawn (tight) grain is visible, and the more open, wavy plain-sawn grain becomes the gluing surface. Glue and clamp three or four overly long pieces of ripped and jointed stock together at a time. When they’re dry, glue and clamp these subassemblies together to form the completed piece. Biscuits help to line up all these edges as you clamp. After the glue dries, take the entire piece to a cabinet shop, and ask them to run it through their wide drum sander to reduce it to final thickness. Another option is to order your top glued-up and made to order at a local home center. This is a little more expensive but often results in a more secure and stable top.

Figure 1: The spline grooves on the endcap are stopped, while those on the ends of the top are through cuts. After routing the grooves in the top, a 3"-wide strip is ripped off. This piece sits outside the liners and spacers.

Figure 2: Dry fit the bench dogs and spacers, leaving gaps that are the size recommended by the dogs’ manufacturer. When everything fits, trim the final spacer to length.