The IKEA in Austin area - Round Rock - has both, Beech & Birch. Just saw last weekend. I can't tell you about the red in either of them, but just thought I'd let you know that I was in a Lumber Liquidator store awhile back & they had about 4 or 5 different butcher blocks for sale & the pricing seemed to be similar to IKEA's. Good luck!

The beech is more reddish than the birch.

I'm not sure how staining would work on the birch...I'd proceed with caution with a scrap or second before trying stain on the counter.

Some people have had good success staining their ikea bb black with India ink. Very cool look.

Don't know where you live but Menard's (upper Midwest) has butcher block (birch) at a decent price. 36" is the widest but wouldn't be a big chore to laminate a couple more lengths of birch (or a contrasting wood) to get the width you need.

Birch does not stain well...You need to look at using wood dyes to get a dark color.

Here is a link that might be useful: Menard's

I got my Birch countertops at Menard's which is a Midwestern area hardware retailer. For less than IKEA price. I am using Rubio Monocoat to stain them Mahogany (see picture of my sample swatch). The dark streaks on the unstained side are remnants of a stain that I sanded off.

Edited to add: Beech is more red than Birch. Rubio Monocoat has many colors - Chocolate is a fairly dark brown with no reddish tones and Walnut is a more transparent brown with no red to it. I have swatches of that too if you want to see. Also I tried my swatches out for a month or so to see if I liked them and I used the piece next to the stove and sink to make sure it was durable enough. It's a one coat application and does not have a disagreeable odor at all.

This post was edited by Aubusson on Fri, Sep 12, 14 at 13:07

I am also very interested in how the Rubio Monocoat has held up. I am highly considering it for a new butcherblock countertop, but have seen mixed reviews on here.

Kyle Klob I think we are leaning towards Osmo as it is available locally.