finishing a butcher's block

[Jules]

DIY-ish, I suppose! We've got a large butcher's block in the kitchen (it was in there when we moved) which we've always avoided because it was just yuck - I'm guessing the previous owners weren't too good at keeping it clean.

Anwyay, yesterday I motivated myself to sand it all down (with a view to at least improving the look, even if it still doesn't get used), and it's actually come up rather nicely (still need to do a couple more runs over it with some finer stuff).

Question is though, what do I coat it with? Some sort of oil, I believe - but does it really matter what? (mineral / linseed / olive / generic veggie oil etc.) Does it need anything else, too, or just the oil?

cheers

Jules

[Alan]

I was recommended liquid paraffin and used it on a beech end-grain cutting board I made from worktop offcuts. Being a mineral oil it shouldn't go 'sour' - mind you it soaked up a hell of a lot of it :-)

Alan

[Reentrant]

Mineral oil aka liquid paraffin. Non-sticky, odourless, tasteless and and won't go rancid.

[Richard Walker]

I've used Liberon Finishing Oil on a solid Sycamore kitchen worktop. Terrific stuff! Heat resistant up to boiling, doesn't yellow much, easy to re-apply (I do the worktop about once a year). Can be stained by red wine, strawberries and rust but otherwise very robust.

-- Richard

[S Viemeister]

Mineral oil, rather than linseed, if you ever want to use if for food prep. Definitely not olive or any other type of cooking oil - they'll go rancid. I use mineral oil on my cutting surfaces, and from time to time scrape them down and re-apply the oil.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I would either not finish it at all, or use olive oil.

Assuming you ARE using it to chop on, that is.

[Andy Dingley]

Oil alone, and frequently: Once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year. Otherwise re-oil when it needs it, i.e. every time you've scraped it super-clean again. Get a small steel scraper for doing this.

Mineral oil is good, cheap and easy to get: "liquid paraffin" from Boots

My favourite is camellia oil. Get this from a Chinese herbalist, hairdresser or Dick tools in Germany. Don't use Japanese sword oil, that's fish oil with camelia scent.

There are a few other vegetable oils you might use but they need to not go rancid and not yellow with age. Sunflower oil (pure!) is better than not using anything, because you probably do have it handy in the kitchen and might actually use it repeatedly (as you ought), rather than forgetting to get some of the good stuff indefinitely.

Don't use olive oil, as that does go rancid and will yellow. Unless it's Steve's olives of course, which are actually the droppings of unicorns and smell of kittens.

Don't use a wood finishing oil - these are drying and film-forming oils.

You're not using a drying oil, so application is easy. Splash some on as a puddle and squegee it around a bit. Leave it 20 minutes, then polish off with a paper towel. Don't worry about extra-thick application (other than waste), it won't go tacky like linseed would.

[Andy Dingley]

OK for "furniture", but bad for butcher blocks.

This is a film-forming oil, so it forms a surface skin rather than soaking in as much as a non-drying oil will. This means that it's more prone to wear from chopping on it, and once you're through, you're through.

Also be wary of "finishing oils", as they're toxic. Acutely toxic when wet, old drier formulations were lead based and modern ones are cobalt based, which isn't entirely unconcerning either. Liberon's "OK" when dried, except in California where they're starting to get twitchy over cobalt. They really are toxic when freshly wet, owing to the solvent.

[Jules]

Firstly, thanks all - mineral oil it is, then; I'll pick some up this weekend.

That was one of the problems I had - the block was covered in some sort of horrible goo which didn't like being sanded; I suspect it was remains from the wrong sort of oil being used, that or decades of guts. I ended up soaking the whole block in water, scraping it, then doing an initial sand whilst still wet (pads kept clogging otherwise)

cheers muchly

J.

[Stuart Noble]

You can't win. Mineral oils (including petroleum jelly) are chemically inert, and therefore harmless, but they don't ever dry, and become tacky in warm conditions.

[Gordon Henderson]

We've got 2 big rubberwood chopping boards - probably not quite the same as a large butchers block, but I've never put anything on them. They get a wash down then a hard scraping after use with a stainelss steel scraper which dries them and usually takes some of the wood with it, and that's it.

Had mine for 8 years now, wifeys a few years longer.

Gordon

[The Natural Philosopher]

Wire wool and caustic soda.

I don't bother to oil my wooden blocks at all.

They get washed and scrubbed and soak up whatever oil is in use in the kitchen.

[The Natural Philosopher]

That's the spirit.

A wash with mild bleach solution renders them unfitt for bacteria anyway.

Who cares what they look like?

[Jules]

I'm not bothered about scratches and the like - it was the stains from who-knows-where (including several rings from cans of substances unknown) and the gummy residue that I wanted to get rid of...

Came up a treat after a spot more sanding today, anyway - I can fill the large void in the counter space by bolting it back into place in the kitchen now :-)