My kitchen counters haven’t seen much love for a while and had several large cracks and splits. Water settled into them and I was worried they would get worse if I didn’t do something about it.
It was time to invest in a hand sander, there was just too much surface area to try and do it without power tools. A trip to my local Home Hardware, which by the way has the most helpful staff around, found me a decent sander and some tips on using it.
I will recommend covering any area you are not sanding. I did not and it left quite a large clean up, even with the dust collector on the sander it leaves a fine layer of dust everywhere.
It didn’t take long and the butcher block was looking new again. The scratches had sanded out and only a few cracks remained. I filled the cracks with wood glue, let it dry for 24 hours and sanded it lightly again.
Several coats of butcher block conditioner brought the whole counter back to life. I will be using the conditioner monthly during the winter months here since it is quite dry here.