Gotta cut the burl before it warps. So I cut it out after gluing the halves together. Looks great and also left me enough burl for another top!!!

Also cut the rough scarf joint in the tough as hell tiger rosewood. Then started some finishing tests on some scrap.

First coat impressions are that the teak oil really brings out the richness of the sapele because its yellow tinted. The master gel is fairly neutral clear. I do like the master gel better on the burl compared to the teak oil.

I guess ill be using the teak oil for the bak and sides and master gel for the top. This will work great because the master gel is urethane so adds a little hardness for the topcoat. It actually builds up a little a top from what I can see and evens out pretty nicely.

The right sided samples are using teak oil by watco and the left is using behlen’s master gel. The picture showing the shine on top has teak oil on left and master gel on right.