Food grade stain and newbie questions.

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i am new to woodworking. I bought a book at Lowes. It showed a little butcher block with a drawer attached underneath I thought of making for my wife.

What would be the best material to make this from and how wood I find a "food grade" stain for the butcher block? i thought of trying to match my formica counter tops.

Reply to
stryped
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Use a good closed grained hard wood. Hard maple is a very popular choice. I would not apply a stain. You could use the food safe "Salad bowl finish" sold at woodcraft...

Reply to
stoutman

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Would red oak work?

What is "salad bowl stain"

I w> >

Reply to
stryped

Any finish on the market is safe once it has dried. A stain will look pretty bad after it has been used for a while; probably not a good idea.

The traditional wood is sycamore, though maple is more common now.

Reply to
Toller

I wouldn't trust any of the wood stains to be food-safe. If you really want to color it somehow, maybe you could experiment with some food coloring on some scraps of the wood that you will be using for your project. If that works and you are happy with it, then use it. There are several food-safe clear finishes available, but I've never seen a food-safe wood stain that was advertised as that. Every butcher block that I've ever seen was natural unfinished wood.

Reply to
Charley

Reply to
nhurst

I feel like an idiot. Here's what I meant to say: Do you think Cypress would be a decent choice? I can get my hands on some of that, but I don't know how appropriate it would be. It's pretty solid stuff, and fairly water resistant, but I don't know if there is any sort of chemical in there that would make food preparation dangerous.

Reply to
nhurst

Reply to
stryped

just made a lot of endgrain cutting boards (same a butcher block but smaller). Use mineral oil as the finish 4 or 5 coats. flood the oil on the whole block and let sit for 15 minute or more then flood it again.After the last coat wipe off the excess and buff with a clean rag. As for the stain none is needed if you use different woods in a pattern. Woods that I have used successfully are hard maple,cherry,honey locust, beech,sycamore small strips of walnut(some people have allergic reaction , no one I know has though) stay away from the oily exotics.I just posted one on alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking.

hope this helps

len

Reply to
leonard

Reply to
Tom P

You can buy food grade mineral oil which is good for kitchen cutting boards. Glenn

Reply to
Elliott

You could use a marble tile, but it will REALLY do a number on the edge of a sharp knife. And the knife will scratch it to the point that you won't be happy with it.

You could make a frame and put some of those plastic cutting boards in it, then change the thing when it looks tacky.

Walt C

Reply to
Walt Cheever

NO. Red Oak is very open grained.

NOT salad bowl stain. I wrote "salad bowl finish"

Here is a link:

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Where is the best place to buy realy wood. I went to Lowes and was

You need to find a Lumber Yard.

Reply to
stoutman

Reply to
nospambob

I did a search on cypress and toxic. Two results say it is non-toxic; I didn't see any that claimed otherwise. Probably safe then.

Reply to
Toller

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