Food Safe Epoxy Finish (Bare with me here)


Gepetto

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Hi All,

I wondered if you could cast your eye over a little project of mine.

I have some lengths of seasoned oak that have been drying in my apartment for several weeks now.

The plan is to make a number of simple chopping/serving boards out of the wood. I love the seaoned oak because it twists, cracks and generally ... it has soul!

I'm going to leave to dry a little longer than cut the boards out. As I want to chop food on the boards I need to fill the cracks. I'm toying with filling them with black epoxy to leave a smooth finish. It might also look nice if the cracks were filled with different shades of epoxy.

Asides wanting feedback on the above, I need to know how to finish the board to make them food safe.

Would it simply be a case of staining the oak, filling the cracks, then sanding, before finishing with a light varnish or epoxy?

Thanks in advance

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I don't know of an epoxy that is food safe. I just made some salad tongs using the hot pipe bending method. I'm finishing those with shellac. I don't have a clue how you could properly address the voids in the Oak and be food safe. It'll be interesting to see if someone does have a solution. Good luck. I'll be watching the thread.

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Thanks folks.

Duckkisser - I plan to fill the cracks to eliminate the issue with bacteria. The trouble is finding a food safe filler.

Vic - It looks like I had misread a post on epoxy resin being food safe. I have done some searching this morning and it seems you can get a food safe resin. I have sent a few emails out to suppliers to get some more information. Particuarly the FDA approval numbers.

If finding a suitable resin proves to be to expensive or difficult, I might just make serving boards. The design I have in mind would be great as a rustic place mat.

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An option, would be to look into a "Linseed Oil" compound. To the best of my knowledge, linseed oil is one of the few "Food Safe" oils that will cure.

I am not sure what your best bet is to thicken the oil to get it to hold in the voids long enough to cure, but I would probably start with just the oil, and if you can't get it to hold and pool in the voids, I would start trying different mixes with a beeswax. Wax may delay, or even prevent a full cure, so add slowly.

Be sure to let the oil int he voids cure completely before coating the rest of the surface. That should give you an opportunity to sand it flat and then coat the whole surface smooth.

I haven't ever tried this, so its just a wild guess, but it's where I would start. If the void is through the board, try "painters tape" on the backside. Painter's tape is just glorified masking tape, but when you are trying to hold a liquid, spend a little extra for the real stuff (Blue = 3M or Green = Frog Tape) because they are coated to prevent paint bleed, which helps to prevent other kinds of bleed too! I do this alot to plug knots. I love "Rustic" lumber, so I seal lots of knots!

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A word of caution with linseed oil: Raw linseed oil does not cure. Well, it will, eventually, but I don't think it creates that nice solid mass like epoxy. Boiled linseed oil will cure, but most of what you can buy in the store is "boiled" chemically, and those chemicals ARE toxic. Also, raw linseed oil is basically flaxseed oil, which can get moldy (and rancid), so unless it's treated to prevent that (which also implies that it's not food safe), I wouldn't use it to attempt to fill in cracks.

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Thanks Chris an thanks Baron.

I have been on the phone to a number of suppliers today and I think I am going to shelve the idea for now. Instead of making a chopping board I'm going to make a rustic place mat. I'll still fill the cracks with epoxy though.

I did find a great store that is in the next town to me. They sell exactly what need, plus a range of pigments to dye the epoxy.

Check it out.

http://http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/products/epoxy-resin/epoxy-coating-resin.aspx

http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/search.aspx?keyword=pigment

I have some more seasoned oak in 7ft lengths. Once it has dried I think I'm going to make a table top and fill the millions of holes with different shades of epoxy. I think it will look really interesting once done.

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another option is to take the wood and make a surface to set you pots and pans on so they dont burn you table or counter.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=wood+trivet&FORM=AWIR

glad you decided not to make cuting boards out of it. that stuff can be prity toxic expecial if you eating it.

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