100% tung oil & mineral oil question

[susieq4131]

As my zen woodworking master once taught me - "make new mistakes."

LOL I am following your zen woodworking master's advice. The successes don't teach us nearly as much as the failures.

SQ

[susieq4131]

Interesting, I also like tung oil for certain pieces. Never thought of wet sanding it before. Thanks for posting.

I've started using the wet sanding technique on some bowls. The wet sanding and the additional coats seems to be turning out a much nicer product.

SQ

[susieq4131]

If you sand the oil into the wood, it'll be smoother textured, and may change the level of shine. I just finished a walnut bench with tung oil, sanded in with 220, sanded next coat with 320, then several more coats with 400 grit. On the first few coats, I used mineral spirits to thin the tung oil; for "food safe", you'd probably want the bowl to sit for a week or two to let all of that leave the piece. For the final coat or two of mineral oil, you might try (slowly) melting beeswax into the oil, then rubbing it into the wood while the wax is still a liquid. This will further seal the piece, and allow a higher level of polish/shine than the oil alone.

Shellac doesn't work well with water, at all. Avoid.

You should watch Marc's video on finishing butcher block cutting boards. While polyurethane isn't at all safe for consumption while it's wet, once it's *completely* dry, it's FDA-approved and food safe. For a second opinion that also agrees, Flexner's book Understanding Wood Finishing. I've left cutting boards dry for a day and then *really* dry for a month before giving them out, but after a month, I'm pretty certain there's no issues left. The secret there was largely thinning the polyurethane, so that it soaks into the wood; wipe off any excess sitting on the wood, so that you don't build a film on top of the wood. With a cutting board, that film gets chopped into your food, and food safe or not, that's pretty icky. For a bowl, which won't be heavily abused (like a cutting board), a coat or two of thinned poly seems worth at least one try.

Excellent suggestions!

SQ

[BuilderBill]

I'm 'way late to this party, but I've always liked Behlen's Salad Bowl Finish for cutting boards and the like. Two or three liberal coats applied like any oil, then buff with 0000 steel wool and a final thin coat with a lint-free rag and you get a nice durable gloss finish. If you let it dry overnight you can use the steel wool between coats for an even smoother finish.

Biggest advantage over the oils is that it dries/cures quickly, leave it overnight and it's ready for sanding, buffing or recoating, whichever you prefer. No waiting for oil to cure.

HTH,

Bill

[susieq4131]

That's a real pretty cutting board. Don't be surprised if it warps a bit after a few months to a year or so. I've heard that breadboarding the ends can help keep the warp factor down. That's the beauty of Marc's end grain board - it's almost impossible to see how it could warp since all the little "boards" are standing on end and are only an inch plus long. You should try making your own finish sometime with a very small amount of polyurethane as part of the mix. You might get to that sweet spot of protection and beauty.

Good luck!

I incorrectly called my first cutting board a flat grain, it's actually an edge grain design. I took all the lumber, cut it 1 1/2 inches wide, stood it on edge and glued it all together. Planed it down to 1 inch. I'm thinking this should be more resistant to warping. Sorry about the confusion.

SQ

[susieq4131]

I'm 'way late to this party, but I've always liked Behlen's Salad Bowl Finish for cutting boards and the like. Two or three liberal coats applied like any oil, then buff with 0000 steel wool and a final thin coat with a lint-free rag and you get a nice durable gloss finish. If you let it dry overnight you can use the steel wool between coats for an even smoother finish.

Biggest advantage over the oils is that it dries/cures quickly, leave it overnight and it's ready for sanding, buffing or recoating, whichever you prefer. No waiting for oil to cure.

HTH,

Bill

Thanks for all the information. I have been curious about Behlen's Salad Bowl Finish. Appreciate you taking the time to share your technique in applying it.

SQ

[iSawitFirst]

I'm not sure I believe that all finishes are food safe once they cure. There's something about eating lacquer and poly that gives me a cake in my colon.

[susieq4131]

The more I research finishing, the more differing opinions I find. lol Can be confusing. I've tried to keep things simple using the least controversial products I can find.

SQ

[BillN]

I incorrectly called my first cutting board a flat grain, it's actually an edge grain design. I took all the lumber, cut it 1 1/2 inches wide, stood it on edge and glued it all together. Planed it down to 1 inch. I'm thinking this should be more resistant to warping. Sorry about the confusion.

SQ

Interesting. If you take a plain sawn board and cut it into strips and stand them on edge (like you describe) it creates a quarter sawn effect. That will make it much more stable than simply use plain sawn boards. In short, very good idea.

Bill

[susieq4131]

Interesting. If you take a plain sawn board and cut it into strips and stand them on edge (like you describe) it creates a quarter sawn effect. That will make it much more stable than simply use plain sawn boards. In short, very good idea.

Bill

Bill,

I'm glad to hear that. The 12 inch diameter maple & cherry bowl (I posted on this forum) was the same edge grain glue up technique.

SQ