Simple Utensil Holder

So it is that time of year to get back in the shop regularly and do some saw dust making. I recently gave my wife a Dexter Cleaver for her birthday as she didn't have one and watching her cut up chicken for the dogs was driving me crazy. I looked around the net for cleavers and found a review by a master chef who said you didn't need a fancy expensive cleaver and that he recommended the Dexter as a very capable all purpose kitchen cleaver. So I ordered one from Dexter and it arrived in a couple of days. She was very excited to receive it but then we had a small problem of how to store it while not using it? She has a butcher block knife set but I couldn't come up with a good way to incorporate the cleaver into the block so I decided to make a dedicated holder for just the cleaver. I had plenty of scrap nice wood just laying around the shop so I got some Oak, Walnut and Cherry I think and set about making up the pieces of the holder. I used the walnut for strips to make the slot for the cleaver to fit into. The Oak made up the top and bottom enclosure and the Cherry was used to make a canted base for the main body. A very simple design but useful none the less. I glued the parts together yesterday and today I finished them up and sanded everything down and assembled my creation. I used two long screws on the bottom of the base to mount it to the top enclosure and to also hold it together while the glue was drying. So now the question is what do i use to finish the cleaver holder with??? I am an admitted clueless beginner when it comes to finishing any type of wood projects. I was thinking about using the salad bowl finish I got for the cutting board you see in the background would that be alright to use on this little creation? I was also thinking maybe some kind of polyurethane? Looking for ideas to finish my rank amateur little cleaver home.

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