The problem with wood is that if the water gets past that seal through a microscopic crack, it's going to absorb the water, expand, crack a bit and absorb more, and keep getting worse.

Listen to your dad ... he's not just your dad, he's a cabinetmaker!

If you do a little research on the forum, you will see scads of posts from people who have actually used ikea butcher block counters with no problem, rather than from non owners speculating about them. The proper finish is extremely important.

If this were true, no wooden boats would exist.

Here are few options:

If your Dad can get you a Corian type product at a discount, consider placing it around the wet area and your BB everywhere else.

Many years ago, my mother had BB countertops. She had an integrated stainless steel sink with stainless countertop right around the sink. It successfully took a lot of abuse.

If he can get the Corian, I bet he can get some other brands that may have a finish more to your taste.

I know you said you wanted an under mount sink, you should consider laminate with a drop in sink. I was in Home Depot the other day. I saw a sample countertop that I had to go touch to tell it wasn't marble. They are doing some amazing laminate counters at prices that are most attractive.

There are a lot of ways you can go. It's not an all or nothing proposition.

Yes, but boats use marine varnish... And many coats of it, reapplied frequently... I wasn't thinking of going THAT heavy duty. I know a lot of people have BB counters with sinks, but I dont know about long term outcome...most of the stuff I've seen ( online in other places, like blogs, etc) shows people revealing them after a recent install, but there often isn't any long term follow up, so I was looking for that sort of personal experience.

I do have my heart set on undermount because I just hate cleaning that edge around a drop in sink.

I started my DIY no budget "reno" more than a year ago by painting the cabinets and tiling the backsplash. For Christmas last year I asked for a Silgranite single basin sink, which is currently sitting in our basement, holding junk mail, because I can't figure out what to do about the counters- which is currently an early '90's speckled mauve laminate- ugh. I painted the lower cabinets dark gray and the uppers white- with white subway tile backsplash.. Extremely unoriginal, as I now know ,but I'm still reasonably happy with it, minus the current sink and counter. I thought the wood might look nice and provide some warmth...the only corian samples that work are the cooler ones.

Home Chef, my FIL did suggest using the combination of corian and wood, as you said, around the sink. I haven't totally ruled that it, but feel it might look busy- my kitchen is a basic square, with the cabinets and counter forming an L on one half.

What color is your Silgranite sink?

Formica says they can merge an undermount sink with their material. See below. It may be a costly process, though.

Have you asked your FIL what other solid material countertops his shop carries?

Look at Corian Jasmine. In the photos it looks quite similar to some of the quartizite I've seen. I think the colors would go with the your paint scheme.

Here is a link that might be useful: Undermount sinks and Formica

I've seen that laminate undermount thing before, but that seems really iffy to me- more so than wood!

The sink is the blanco silgranite gray one...can't recall the exact color name. It's a warm medium gray.

My FIL gave me a sample box of solid surface that is mostly Corian- I think he said his distributor had stopped carrying one of the other brands.... Maybe Hi Macs? But we had that conversation a year ago, so I don't know if that has changed or if he could acquire the brand of my choosing, if I found a sample I liked somewhere else. From what I've seen, they all look pretty much the same though...a little plastic-y? I guess there is no getting around that- the budget is what it is.

There is no end grain on boats exposed, unlike a butcher block sink cutout. Let that exposed end grain suck down a couple coats of thin epoxy and you should be okay.

I recently stayed at an airbnb on a small island that had a wooden countertop with an undermounted sink. It was a little cottage that had been built in the 1920s. The owner said he hadn't done anything to the counter when he bought the cottage 6 years earlier or since, except replace a small section of countertop where the old hand pump had been before electricity had come to the island. It was edge-joined cypress (face up). It looked heavily varnished but the wood was in great shape and looked fantastic after 100 years. In no way would I shy away from an undermount sink with butcher block if I was willing to invest a little care. It's a beautiful look.

I'm trying to figure out a way to install an undermount sink in one of the new IKEA "butcherblock" countertops, which are really only a thin layer of wood on an MDF core. The laminate-friendly sinks from KARRAN look promising, but they're made to mount flush into an MDF surface which then has laminate installed over the sink and trimmed away. I have to work out a way to rout out the MDF from underneath and leave only the solid wood over the sink and make sure it all gets sealed up. I haven't seen anyone on the internet do this, so I might be venturing out on my own.

HU:

The veneer on a particle board IKEA butcher block is only 1/64" thick. You aren't successfully routering away that much material and leaving 1/64". Even if you could, it would be a terrible idea.

You might make a SinkLink work somehow, but you're going to have to re-veneer your butcher block top. For that much hassle, you may as well buy the real thing.

It's actually 1/4", but I agree it's probably not worth the hassle and the margin of error is too small.

I will be doing an undermount stainless steel sink with a very, very small tile surround and on one side a bamboo butcher block countertop.

HU:

If it's 1/4", you're good to go. Rout away please. I've seen some IKEA butcher block that had 1/64" veneer; apparently not all do.

We recently did wood counters at our lake house. I researched a lot before buying them and most big box hardware stores carry solid wood slabs that are better for your application than IKEA's veneered version. We ended up ordering custom maple counters from a local company our contractor was familiar with. It was only a slightly more expensive than the other options I had priced out at big box stores and they cut to size.

So how did it turn out? I'm doing the same project with a Karran quarts sink and ikea BB counter..