Esteemed Galoots,

I welcome your ideas on how to treat a wooden work surface to repair beetle
damage.

The backstory . . . 

When I started out I built my bench huge, not just for the weight, but because I
have 4 sons and 3 daughters and was hopeful that they’d join in. That bench was
originally 37”. I’m 5’10” and it made me miserable for planing (carpal tunnel,
neck strain, and a tendency to make the near-side of any given board about 3/64”
thinner than the far).

I cut it down to 35” which was well enough for a while. But an odd thing
happened, when I discovered wooden planes. Every time I use one, my bench grows
about 3”. But I don’t want to cut it lower because it shrinks back to the right
height when I get out a chisel, or a dovetail saw, or my carving tools.

Last weekend I decided to build a dedicated planing bench that stands at the
“classic” wrist height while standing arms loose. I have some enormous oak
slabs, with annual rings literally 1/4” apart, that will someday become bench
tops. But they’re only a year old and still not stable.

So I decided to do a quick job laminating up some 100 year old SYP flooring that
I got from a salvor. I’m quite pleased with the top, which after all the
trimming is about 4” thick, square to 3 sides (don’t crawl under it and judge
the underside) and extremely heavy for its size. It would probably be 15%
heavier if the powder post beetles hadn’t gotten to the stock about 80 years
ago.

Since I treated all the wood with mineral spirits before starting, and since
it’s laminated, I’m not too worried. Even if the spirits left some survivors,
they’ll hit glue which will contain the damage. Just like the bulkheads on the
Titanic. (!)

But the work surface itself has some crawly-holes. I’m of the “laying it on its
side is worse than letting the blade touch the bench” school. I could just call
it patina and not worry about it . . . but I suspect the beetle tracks become
grit-sinks over time. Most of the time my planes don’t sit on the bench, but on
a carpet scrap stapled to a piece of fiberboard and soaked with oil. But I’m
reluctant to use the Titebond-and-sawdust trick because the glue itself and the
grit it attracts are not what I want the irons sitting on.

Hence the question . . . anyone have ideas for a plane-friendly surface
treatment to fill in beetle tracks?

Maybe mineral oil or paraffin….

Mark.