Thinking about Kitchen Counters 1/13/2023

I milled this oak last spring for use as handrails. I was going to cut it down to 2"x2" strips and shape it from there, and I was going to use some joinery to make continuous pieces out of it. But anyway, that would be really time consuming and I decided I didn't like the idea of joints in the middle of the rail somewhere, so I used 2x4's instead, and I'll change them over to oak when I make some longer pieces after we move in.

But what to do with these pieces?

Well, we wrangled with the soapstone people from July through November, and ended up only being able to talk them into sending us a single 5'x5' piece for the island. I saw a really cool looking kitchen countertop made out of 2x6 lumber. Showed my wife, and she was like, "yes!".

But pine is pretty soft, so I'm looking at these oak slabs now....

Oh, and my 102 yr old table saw has a jointer on the side. Short story: I haven't used it in 20 years because the first time I tried, it shot knives out all over the garage. But now I'm thinking the motor spins too fast - it's definitely not the original 102 yr old motor. I bought a "motor speed controller" and some new knives...we'll see what happens.

The rest of the photo: live edge 4x16 pine door & window frames on the back of the house. Still need some stairs back there, lol.