emilyb16: After you sand your salvaged wood (with an orbital sander, which is fairly inexpensive to invest in) to the smoothness you want, ) I highly recommend finishing your wood with a product called Osmo, which is known as a high solid and is "food grade" in Germany-- great even if you don't want to eat on it-- and very eco friendly. It permeates wood extremely well and comes up as a matte satin, which is lovely. I have used this several times on tabletops and even on 90 year old wood panelling. I bought my first salvaged wood and this product, Osmo, from a salvage lumber yard in Petaluma California, but have found it since then in Newark, Delaware from a mom and pop store called World Class Supply. That is a great source because they will ship and are a wealth of information on the stuff.