Wood butter

[jamiecrawford]

Whilst cruising Pinterest for woodwork stuff, I came across something called wood butter. Im sure I'm just naive and uninformed, but it's new to me. Looks like it gives a nice finish, regardless of it's efficacy for preserving chopping boards etc. think I might make some up and have a play around with it. I love anything that brings out the grain. Anyone else use this, or have any more ideas for homemade wood treatments?

http://www.creative-culinary.com/wood-butter-helps-renew-wood-utensils-and-bowls/

 

[Claymore]

Its lovely on toast Jamie 9-)

 

[jamiecrawford]

You're a dark, twisted man, Mr Claymore!

 

[Chippygeoff]

Hi Jamie. I thinks always exciting when we stumble across something that will benefit our scroll sawing and the wood butter sounds an excellent product. I was impressed with the before and after photos and see no reason why it could not be used on other items beside food utensils. It will be interesting to see how you get on with the recipe and how it works out on some of the things you make.

 

[marcros]

It is a reasonably straightforward beeswax lip balm- usually made from olive oil and beeswax but here it is mineral oil. The consistency is varied by the ration of wax to oil. You make it, let a sample cool and see what you think. It it is a bit thick or thin, wang a bit more oil or wax in. You could also drop in a bit of essential oil for fragrance.

However it does not dry hard, and would easily get sticky if handled regularly. Personally I would avoid it. I have bees, so I collect wax and melt it down but that wax alone it isn't much use as a polish- it needs some canaubra wax in it to lift the melting temperature. It does smell nice but a polish, rather than a "butter" is generally made with turpentine rather than oil. The idea behind the butter is more of a conditioner and is designed to stop the wood drying out.

 

[jamiecrawford]

Interesting, cheers Marcros. I wonder if conditioning prior to a more traditional wax polish might improve the finish?

 

[martinka]

Since this thread started, I've had this image in my mind. If it was warm enough in the garage I'd have made a pattern and cut it out for something to do.