Beautiful!
Thought Iād follow up on the performance of this trivet. I let the final coat of poly cure for a week before using. In the two weeks since, Iāve been using it twice daily, and putting a kettle on it directly after removing it from the stovetop after bringing it to a boil. The trivet is still looking greatāreally, no different from the picture in the original post. I was originally worried about two things.
First, that the polyurethane would yellow and/or decompose after heating. A test piece I sprayed with a few coats of spar varnish began to yellow after the first use and released a strong smell of polyurethane after every use. Faced with the poor performance of the spray spar varnish, I did some more research and saw that oil-based varnish might work better. In the end I used some stuff weād had sitting around the house (link below) and brushed it on. There was a slight odor the first few days after the trivet got heated, but nowhere near as strong as the spray varnish, which continued to smell the whole time I used it (probably about a month). Thereās no smell at all now from the final piece.
The other worry I had is that the heat might cause the glue to loosen and the veneer to peel. Nothing so far. (For the curious, I used Weldbond).
Iāll report back again if anything starts to go awry.
That is beautiful. I love the inlays and the different color veneers. Good work!