Chestnut Food Safe Oil finish still feeling oily

[gwreis]

Greetings!

This is my first post here and let me say that I´ve been lurking on UKWorkshop for about six months now and learned a lot from you guys. Thank you all very much for the great information, projects and knowledge shared here.

I´m relatively new to proper woodworking , though I´ve flerted with it for a very long time. Recently my wife asked me to build a cutting board for her. After some research I decided to use beech and bought Chestnut Food Safe oil to finish it. I applied 3 coats, but didn´t wipe the excess off (I guess i should have researched how use the oil to...) and it was about 4 degrees when I use it. ](*,) Now after 2 weeks letting it dry on a warm and dry enviroment it still fells oily if I rub my hands on it.

I was thinking about sanding it again to remove the oil and refinish it. Is there any other way around this? I tried to wipe the board with paper towels and water, even some neutral soap, but it still fells oily if I rub my finger on it...

I research the forum before asking this, but didn´t find an aswer. If it´s here here somewhere, sorry to ask again.

Cheers

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've not used the Chestnut but I assume it's the same as others - it's a non drying oil. Don't worry about it - it won't hurt or taint anything and it'll wear off.

 

[AndyT]

Well I think you know why it went wrong! If I was you I'd try to get the finish off and start again. At least it's just one simple board.

If you try sanding, you'll probably just clog up the sandpaper with the uncured oil which is trapped under the cured surface. You might get a better result by scraping, with frequent breaks to clean the scraper. If you can get through to the uncured oil, wipe as much off as you can, then put it in a warm place until it feels dry.

Whatever you do, do it indoors in the warm, not out in a cold shed.

 

[paulm]

This finish is mainly made of liquid paraffin I believe, it won't cure in the way that danish oil or boiled linseed oil, or some of the nut oils do.

All I think you can do is wipe off the surplus and/or wash in warm soapy water, to remove surplus from the surface. After that it may leach more to the surface if kept indoors somewhere moderately warm and you can try repeating the wiping off or washing periodically, but essentially it will likely remain an oily feeling finish for quite some time/indefinitely in my experience.

Cheers, Paul

 

[CHJ]

AS others have said it won't dry, as Paul says basically a light grade Liquide Paraffin (BP), (lighter grade soaks in a little better than some more viscose versions) as long as surface is not running in the stuff it's fine to use, doing what it's supposed to do forming a moisture resistant barrier to water.

If you want to maintain it's water rejecting properties only swill in clear water, washing detergents will remove greater amounts from the wood surface.

 

[ED65]

The Chestnut Food Safe Finish is liquid paraffin, the same stuff that all American sources will refer to as mineral oil. If you want to go looking for more info that's the term to use as there's masses more written about it on sites over there.

I was going to ask what the application instructions on the bottle say, but this type of thing can frankly be very bad about how to best apply the product in general, and additionally will often not cover how to oil end-grain boards which take oil very differently to long grain.

 

[gwreis]

Thanks for all the replies!

Well I think you know why it went wrong! If I was you I'd try to get the finish off and start again. At least it's just one simple board.

If you try sanding, you'll probably just clog up the sandpaper with the uncured oil which is trapped under the cured surface. You might get a better result by scraping, with frequent breaks to clean the scraper. If you can get through to the uncured oil, wipe as much off as you can, then put it in a warm place until it feels dry.

Whatever you do, do it indoors in the warm, not out in a cold shed.

Yeah I messed up. Right now it´s -5 degrees outside, so I´ll definitely work somewhere warmer! I don´t have a scraper yet, so maybe it´s the excuse I needed to add one to my tool collection.

AS others have said it won't dry, as Paul says basically a light grade Liquide Paraffin (BP), (lighter grade soaks in a little better than some more viscose versions) as long as surface is not running in the stuff it's fine to use, doing what it's supposed to do forming a moisture resistant barrier to water.

If you want to maintain it's water rejecting properties only swill in clear water, washing detergents will remove greater amounts from the wood surface.

The surface is definitely not running on it. As I never used any other oil finish, I don´t know how it´s supposed to feel when it´s dry. All the wipe off seamed to give good results though. It´s feels drier/less oily now. Maybe I´ll give it another go tomorrow. My only concern is that somehow the oil will get in the food. I know it´s food safe, but I don´t believe it´s edible to...

The Chestnut Food Safe Finish is liquid paraffin, the same stuff that all American sources will refer to as mineral oil. If you want to go looking for more info that's the term to use as there's masses more written about it on sites over there.

I was going to ask what the application instructions on the bottle say, but this type of thing can frankly be very bad about how to best apply the product in general, and additionally will often not cover how to oil end-grain boards which take oil very differently to long grain.

The instructions in the bottle where clear about wipping the excess off. They also said it should feel touch dry in 30 minutes and wait 24 hours to use it. As applied to much oil, it took 1 week to start feeling dry on the touch, but still after two weeks, if I scrub my fingers on it they get shiny and feel oily. I´m going to do some research on mineral oil as well... Thanks for the tip.

Well if wiping off again doesn´t work, I´ll probably buy a scraper and try to remove the finish as suggested!

Thanks again everyone!

 

[CHJ]

Liquid paraffin is edible, good old fashioned remedy for constipation to lubricate the intestines.

Also a base substance for most skin moistening products including those intended for use on babies.

If you drink the bottle full you may be advised not to stray to far from the little boys room for a couple of days.

The BP (British Pharmacopeia) standard is a measure of its purity.

http://www.rxwiki.com/liquid-paraffin