I know it's pretty basic but doing the laminated top has really been kicking my butt. I chose to make it from pine as she repairs rugs and sometimes needs to nail them to her bench and this should be easy to nail into and pull the nails back out of. I'm going to apply some poly to the top and hopefully I can finally sign off on this project.
I recommend boiled linseed oil instead of tung oil - I can find real boiled linseed oil. Most tung oil isn't really tung oil is just sortof looks like tung oil if you are not too picky.
Milk paint company sells some good pure tung oil. I like tung oil for its non-yellowing and superior protective qualities, and I've come to like the smell...