Restoring wooden kitchen worktop

[Buglife]

We moved into a house recently and the wooden work tops in the kitchen are a mess. I think the previous owner varnished them rather than oiled them, the surface feels almost sticky and tacky and there are yellow splashes on the tiles which indicate it's varnish. So. I want to do this myself. What's the best way? Is it as easy as sanding it all off and then oiling it up? What's the best oil to use? And I assume I need some sort of sanding machine or it'll be a lot of elbow grease...

Can you post a pic?

watching with interest, we have wooden worktops that were already there when we moved in - ours are sticky too! I love how they look when you see them in a shop but mine just look grubby

Too much oil can sit on the surface and become sticky when it dries. (I know because I over-oiled my floor ). Could it be that?

Thanks for replies! Pictures attached, when I leave a plastic bread bag or similar on the surface it transfers onto it and I need to magic sponge it off, it's got a really tacky feel to it. Also it's worn off in places. Maybe it is oil, but it seems like varnish?

Also these marks and splashes around the worktop look more like varnish (they don't clean off)

If oil has been put on too thick and left to harden if can feel tacky but that could be varnish.

Ours were horrible and stained black. I sanded and oiled with osmo top oil which fantastic and apart from a bit around the taps I got them pretty perfect and it has been really hard wearing since. It has been over a year and they could do with a light sand and new coat.

That looks like they've overdone the oil. I had splashes like that after oiling a worktop..

Some good advice here

It looks like either over oiling OR they've slapped on some varnish for a quick doer upper to sell. Varnish over the top of oil will just sit and lift off in patches / feel tacky etc. Either way you need to sand back to the natural wood and refiniseith oil from scratch

The link above recommending wire wool and white spirit sounds good. To be honest, I don't have loads of worktop... will I be doing this every year or two? Should I just get it replaced? Will wood always be crap...

We've sanded ours down with normal sandpaper to take the oil layer off then reapplied danish oil sparingly and it's worked really well

Our worktops were sticky when we bought our house, they also absorbed and were marked by any liquids spilt on them. After researching online, we lightly sanded and then coated with a couple of coats of Osmo oil. They are no longer sticky and liquids now bead on top. They still have a few marks from the previous owners and fading from the sun, so I think that in time, we will sand them back more heavily and re-coat with Oslo but for now, they look okay and are hassle free.

Has anyone paid a firm to restore their wooden worktops? Had a quote to sand and oil which seems quite a lot of money ... would appreciate to hear what others have paid rather than doing it themselves.

Thanks