First published October 2012. Updated November, 2026 with the sealer that finally worked.

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you.

We stained our Ikea butcher block counters jet black with India ink. The stain was the easy part and it came out beautifully. The sealer was the hard part: our first choice, Waterlox, took weeks and started letting water through in under a year.… Read the rest