Shopsmith Forums

I make a lot of cutting/bread/cheese boards and generally use light mineral oil to finish. My sense tells me, however, that any finish, including varnish (oil or water based), lacquers, tung and linseed oils, et al, are safe as long as they are allowed to properly dry and cure. Am I wrong?
I ask because I give most of these away as gifts, and want to limit the amount of care required of the recipients.

Thanks

On a cutting board you would not want to use a hard finish, as knives will cut it. Grooves on a cutting board can become places for bacteria to grow. Linseed oil never completely cures, or so I am told or read. Shellack is inappropriate to use around water or alcohol. Tung oil comes from the tung nut, but lots of biological material I would not want to ingest. I am just not sure it is food safe, as I have seldom seen it recommended for cutting boards.

If I were you, I would play it safe and use an approved food oil that can be used to replenish the surface from time-to-time.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Food+sa ... f&tbm=shop

If it were me, I'd use, (in this order of importance) walnut oil, flaxseed oil, or food grade mineral oil. Walnut and flax will harden, but mineral won't. (Yes, linseed oil and flaxseed oil are basically the same thing, but flaxseed oil is edible, linseed oil isn't.)

steve

I use "food grade" mineral oil that I purchase by the gallon at Tractor's Supply. It is intended for the digestive system of horses. Safe for them and safe for us. And a better price too.

This is what you should use:

http://generalfinishes.com/retail-produ ... wYvUU-A2Jc

stephen_a._draper wrote:This is what you should use:

http://generalfinishes.com/retail-produ ... wYvUU-A2Jc

Here's the MSD for it.

[ATTACH]24139[/ATTACH]

So in other words Mineral Oil.

terrydowning wrote:So in other words Mineral Oil.

Also MORE EXPENSIVE with the fancy name.

This is just an aside, but one of the uses of the Stanley #62 "Butcher Block Plane" was to dress cutting boards. The plane isn't made any longer (and antique ones cost a pretty penny), but Lie-Nielsen makes a copy. It has a low angle blade to better cut end grain, but can be used on long grain too. One of the reasons you want to dress the wood is to remove cut marks where food particles can hide and harmful bacteria grow. Obviously in a professional kitchen this is a bigger problem than in the home.

WmZiggy wrote:This is just an aside, but one of the uses of the Stanley #62 "Butcher Block Plane" was to dress cutting boards. The plane isn't made any longer (and antique ones cost a pretty penny), but Lie-Nielsen makes a copy. It has a low angle blade to better cut end grain, but can be used on long grain too. One of the reasons you want to dress the wood is to remove cut marks where food particles can hide and harmful bacteria grow. Obviously in a professional kitchen this is a bigger problem than in the home.

Would you happen to have a link to where you can purchase that Planer by Lie-Neilson ?