Chopping board finishes??

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I seem to remember Mike Garnham made a decent chopping board a few months back as well - worth a forum search, if you ask me. :wink:
 
The best thing to coat chopping boards with is Light Mineral Oil. You can get it in cookshops but Ikea do it much cheaper if you've got one nearby and can face a visit to the big blue box. I think it's called Slik!

Mineral oil is an crude oil derivative I think and is what Johnsons baby oil is but without the fragrance! It's food safe and won't go rancid like vegetable oils.

The other advantage is that it's also a fantastic sharpening oil for oilstones!

Tommy.
 
I wish people would take notice of earlier postings. There are a number of people here saying that vegetable oils, including olive oil, don't go rancid in their experience. To just trot out the old stories without testing them is lazy.......

When you get your oil or whatever you plan to use for finishing the board with, consider whether you would eat or drink the contents of the bottle or tin. If not, then don't apply it to a chopping board. I for one wouldn't drink light mineral oil..........derived, as it is, from crude oil.

Mike
 
I made an end grain ash chopping board out of offcuts a few months back, stuck together with glue, sanded down to 320 grit and finished with about 3 coats of Chestnut Food Safe Oil. Water still beads off it and most knives won't touch that tough end grain
 
I think I need to go find some offcuts :)

I like the idea of using a bit of purpleheart as the colour contrast with maple or ash would be really good, failing that I might get a bit of Iroko... we'll see :)
 
here's what beech and iroko look like

DSC_0088.JPG
 
Thats nice, I think I might try the end-grain approach or do both and biscuit one up as in the photo and then attempt the other :D
 
why wouldn't linseed oil be good enough? it has a lovely smell like cricket bats, and after all we eat linseeds which means it passes the 'i wouldn't want that near my food' test. i have made quite a few of the woodwhisperer-type end grain boards (yew and sycamore was my favourite combination) and the linseed oil worked a treat. no one has died yet using them
 
gasman":24xfwgbt said:
why wouldn't linseed oil be good enough? it has a lovely smell like cricket bats, and after all we eat linseeds which means it passes the 'i wouldn't want that near my food' test.

Hmmmmm.........I would be very cautious of this. Whilst we may eat linseeds, I am not sure that linseed oil is just the oil of linseed. I have a feeling that it may have additives or solvents.........and it is those that I wouldn't want to ingest.

Oh, and BTW, nobody oils cricket bats any more!

Mike
 
Linseed oil does have additives. These are metallic and help the oil to cure. I wouldn't want to use that sort of product on anything I was using to prepare food. In fact, since finishing oils will trap any moisture content in the wood when it cures, there is the risk that immersing the wood in hot water for washing could make the moisture content swell and damage the chopping board.

For over ten years I've had a couple of chopping boards which are used daily. They are made from edge-laminated maple and although they are clearly not brand new, they're a long way from being worn. I scrub them when I do the washing up and that's about all the treatment they need. No finishing or cooking oils.

Gill
 
Mike Garnham":18mm2a97 said:
........and the olive oil finish is fine!

Mike

OOOooooo yer don't wanna use olive oil Mike, I've heard is goes rancid :lol:

(it must be true I read it on t'internet)
 
lurker":2az2a3ku said:
motownmartin":2az2a3ku said:
wizer":2az2a3ku said:
Mike Garnham":2az2a3ku said:
Oh, and BTW, nobody oils cricket bats any more!


What would you know?? :roll:
:lol: he never had one in his hands long enough :lol:

Yep :lol:
He oiled it when he bought it & that lasted his entire career

Ive only just realised that he's the mike garnham :shock:

'cording to his cricket profile our mike was a right handed batsman as well as a 'keeper http://www.cricket-online.com/player.ph ... r_id=10662
 
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