I'm revisiting this thread because I was hoping you could tell me more about your butcher block. Where did you source it from? Any chance you remember which kind of wood it was? I'm guessing either birch or acacia.

I'm asking because I'm looking at building a new office desk using a wood top and then a fixed support system (from Ikea). Ikea doesn't sell actual wood kitchen tops anymore, so Lowe's seems to be the place to get them, or I pay someone to make me one for a lot of money. I'm looking at something that's not quite as thick as your work bench, but otherwise a similar idea. Buy it, cut it, and then finish it. I was just curious what your wood buying experience was like.