Finish for Cutting Board and Bowls?

[Mark M]

I know this has been discussed before but I don't have much luck with the new search function.

What are you using for finish for wood items that will contact food? I've used cooking oil before and it seemed to work OK but I know there is something better.

Thanks
Mark

[Jeff]

Larry talks about the finish he is using on his cutting boards in the wooden Christmas gifts thread.

[Tom]

A good fail-safe finish is mineral oil.  It doesn't turn rancid like some vegetable oils may do.

[pasbuild]

Make sure that the mineral oil is a pharmaceutical grade mineral oil.

[Corley5]

Linseed oil is what I've been told to use.  As I remember raw linseed oil is what you want as the boiled variety has been treated with something ???

[Carl_B]

I use salad bowl finsh made by General Finishes . The say that it is a non toxic finsh whene cured for salad bowls wood untensils butchers blocks and any wood surface. http://www.generalfinishes.com

[pasbuild]

Our local health department requires the use of pharmaceutical grade mineral oil.

If that means anything ;D

[CHARLIE]

For my cutting boards, I put two very heavy coats of Mineral Oil (purchase at the pharmacy or a department store in their pharmaceutical aisle). I'll put on a heavy coat and let it sit all night and then apply another and let it sit all night.  A friend of mine submerges his cutting boards in a bucket of mineral oil and lets it sit all night. If you'll warm the oil before applying, it will soak into the wood further.

Another friend mixes parafin and mineral oil and heats it up until the parafin melts and blends with the oil. then he applies that to his cutting board. I've never tried this myself, but the wax and oil soak into the wood.  

For bowls, you could use mineral oil also but it tends to darken the woodgrain quite a bit.  If you don't want the grain to turn quite as dark, then buy a Salad Bowl Finish like Carl_B suggested. There are a couple of brands out there.

Don't use vegetable oils as they will turn rancid. Well, at least in warmer climates it will. Up there in the frozen tundra of North Dakota, it'll probably last a lifetime frozen solid.

[Patty]

My shop teacher made me a beautiful cutting board for Christmas, (I'll get a picture later), my question is: He rubbed it with vegetable oil before he gave it to me. Can I still go ahead and protect it with the mineral oil you guys are talking about?

[beenthere]

Patty
I don't think you need to worry, and can either use soap and water to wash the board, rinse good, and dry good, then apply the mineral oil, OR I suspect just apply the mineral oil ang go from there.  

I have always used just olive oil, and never had a problem with the boards getting rancid. But then, I never re-applied the olive oil so suspect there isn't much left in my boards.

Some commercial cutting boards would be sealed in wax, for which I would use paper towels under a flat iron to heat and melt the wax (stop when all traces of wax were gone) and then apply the oil.

[SwampDonkey]

I'de use linseed oil. What we used in pototo storage was linseed oil. You couldn't use anything toxic where food was stored. No copper arsonate treated plywood at all.

[etat]

Swampdonkey, when my grandpa used to dig and store his potato's he'd sprinkle them over with powdered lime.  They'd wash em off before cooking or peeling em to eat. He said this would help keep them from going bad.

[SwampDonkey]

NO No NO, the oil goes on the walls of the storage shed (wood preservative), not the taters. ;)

Never heard of puttin lime on taters in a shed. We used to spread lime on the fields though. I could never figure that out neither cause the soil and well water was full natural lime. :

A little Nostalga
Click here
Father knows some of these farmers as they were within 10 miles from our farm.

There was a morning radio and now a  Tv version of the 'Potato Pickers Special' in northern Maine and Western New Brunswick. It's hosted by a TV station in Presque Isle, Maine.

[Larry]

I have tried about every finish know to mankind on the boards I make including a few that haven't been mentioned yet...walnut oil and snake oil. :D ;D :D  There is a small chance of a board going rancid with vegetable oil but nothing to get overly excited about.

Patty if your board is a using board just put mineral oil on it the next time it looks dry.  If it is mostly a show board don't worry about it.

End grain cutting boards

Art for the --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!--.com/albums/v12/5tucker/Woodnet%20stuff/f3a.jpg[/img]

[Patty]

Thanks guys. Yea we used it right away.  :D  You gotta understand, anything to do with food gets used pretty well around our house!  ;)

[SwampDonkey]

That's a beautiful piece of work there Larry. I wouldn't be cuttin no chicken on that board.

cheers

[Mark M]

I cain't figger out how you did that?

[Larry]

This should clear up the mystery Mark.



Cherry with a little sapwood and walnut always look well together.

[Silverback]

Mineral Oil or Vegetable Oil would also be my suggestion.  For items that would not normally see such abuse you can also use REAL shellac.  The kind that you disolve the "buttons" in alchol to apply.  You could eat the buttons and not be harmed.  This does not apply to the stuff that comes in a can.  Good finish for stuff like children's toys.

[Don P]

Corley mentioned that "boiled" linseed oil has some additives...arsenic, beryllium, chromium, cadmium and nickel...and a few solvents to keep all that swimming around, it's not really boiled at all, that's mostly japan drier.

Raw linseed oil, like most vegetable oils, in our climate mildews pretty easily when the humidity goes up, linseed oil just dries way too slow.

Pure Tung oil is another option...finding pure tung oil is another thing, most of the stuff on the shelf is adultered with driers, varnishes, etc. Tung oil is a naturally drying oil that form a cross linked polymer all by its lonesome...it forms long chains of molecules and the chains also link to each other sideways. Metal food cans used to be coated with tung oil, not sure if they still are.
Here's a neat link I found while checking
Tung Oil

I was checking up on shellac, it is the excretion of the lac insect. I've seen footage of it being processed in India by folks that I wouldn't want anywhere near my food...but lo and behold it is used in some food grade stuff and the Zinser plant is regularly inspected by rabbi's to keep a kosher rating.

As an aside, I found this on a vegan website...apparently 300,000 lac bugs lose their tiny little lives to produce 1 kg of shellac.

All that said, I use mineral oil on cutting boards.

[SwampDonkey]

Can't get any more humid that in a potato shed and we never had problems with mildew and linseed oil on the plywood interior. I remember using vegetable oil in shop class in school on our bowls and I still have a couple of them bowls around I use for puttin nuts or fruit in. I used epoxy in a couple bowls I put fruit or wrapped candy in, I wouldn't put anything (food) that makes a mess in a wood bowl because it gets lodged in the grains of the wood. I'de never cut meat on wood unless afterword I treated it with bleach water, dried it and applied mineral, pure linseed or vegetable oil to protect the wood and kill the germs. Good way to pickup salmonela. We always cut meat on glass or teflon boards. Just over cautious maybe?

[Silverback]

I wouldn't use the shellac on anything that takes such abuse as cutting boards or bowls; but it is non toxic and makes a good finish for possible contact with a mouth--ie. baby toys.  It's also a superb finish for all sorts of furniture that would not see moisture.  I posted it merely for general knowlege.  Almost all tung oil sold on the shelf is just thinned poly with a few other oils added.  

I've seen a study posted somewhere on the net where wood cutting counters (hard maple) and the white plastic counters were tested side by side and the wood counter had less microbs than they plastic varity.  I can't remember where I saw it; it may have been on the old "badger pond" forum.

[Larry]

Yea Silverback that study was in 1993 at University of Wisconsin.  Basically it said bacteria on a wood cutting board died within 3 minutes but it could live for days on a plastic cutting board.  Of course the plastic cutting board industry wasn't to impressed with that study so now we got lots of research with all kinds of different conclusions.

Anybody concerned with bacteria can take a few simple steps to prevent it.  After using a board wipe it off with soap and water then a weak solution of bleach and water.  Dry throughly.  Use one board for meats/fish and another one for vegetables.  Board starts to look dry re-apply mineral oil.

I like to add that another board for bread and one for display is pretty cool but I have ulterior motives. ;D