Cherry table top - hard enough?

Not familiar with Duravar so I don't know how that would affect the equation, but I doubt it. Cherry is pretty soft.

In = news: snipped-for-privacy@c34g2000yqn.googlegroups.com, Mark Whittingham dropped this bit of wisdom:

I cannot say for the others, but,

I have a solid cherry table that my grandfather made almost, if not more = than, 100 years ago.

All it has is a standard, for then, finish on it and it is definitely = hard enough to write upon.

P D Q

It's in there, but it's listed in the table, not the pie chart. Mesquite is

Woops; brain check. That is *not* a "pie" chart... :-)

Good catch, I was gonna' gripe you out.

-Zz

My first-hand experience is No, cherry will not stand up to writing.

=========================== You do so at your peril.

If I were to write on your table, I'd leave marks in it without a table protector.

Lew

Consider the ball point pen. It is very small and the force you exert is high - PSI is high. No wood can stand up to it. Many metals can't.

Use a tablet under the single sheet or a glass sheet covering the top. The glass should be tempered and safety. A glass company should help.

In the 60's we had good friends that had a glass table top for a dinning room.

The table was great until a hot pot was put on a cloth pad - shattered it. The table top was replaced with a 1" sandstone top that was sealed and was beautiful. The mother had a deep gash on her leg.

Mart> I'm planning on a cherry top for a table I'm making. The finish will

I have finished cherry in ways that would withstand writing on it. 3 piss coats of Autocryl clear and two or three full strength. Pricey but effective without that epoxy/plastic look. Hard enough for most normal use, including writing.

I have two cherry table tops I made from wood from the farm I grew up on. One is over 18 years old -- we have written on it over the years and no marks. I guess you could make marks if you pushed hard enough with a ball point pen,

l8r Jack

I don't know of any practical wood finish that can withstand a ball-point pen. If it is a writing table you are building consider a leather covering for writing.