Newbie question: I've got this big hunk of bowling alley that I want to turn into a table. It's laminated strips of fir (I think), and while the top looks good (and will look great once I run a floor sander over it and finish it), the sides and ends look awful.

I envision putting some harder wood edging on it. Not sure what yet, but I should be able to just glue something to the sides. However, gluing something to the end seems to me to introduce some cross-grain issues that will probably end up tearing that board off after a few rainy to dry season transitions (here in Northern California).

Any suggestions on how to do this? I could make something that floats over the entire length, or maybe something that's biscuit joined at just a few places and use a finish that's flexible enough to fill whatever gap lies between the two boards and move with the seasonal changes (or just gets refreshed occasionally), but that still leaves the transition to the side edging to be worked out (maybe round the corners and have them try to meet at the corner of the bowling alley piece?).

Or should I just clean up the end-grain and polish that?