hi, im told linseed oil is the best oil to use on a wooden cooking chopping board, also i want to use it on a garden seat. however it comes in ordinary linseed oil and boiled linseed oil. what is the difference between ordinary and boiled linseed and what are the advantages of the two different types?
thanking you for any assistance, yours john west.
Oil softens wood so don't use any of any type. Food chopping blocks should just be scraped and washed. Butchers use scalding water and wire brushes.
Wood by the way is the most hygenic of surfaces in a kitchen as it has a sterilizing effect.
"john west++++" wrote in news:SH5uc.534$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe3-win.server.ntli.net:
John, The Boiled Linseed Oil is typically NOT boiled in the classic sense of the word, but rather made to behave in a manner as classic boiled linseed would behave. In other words, it polymerizes, or cures, more quickly, than the 'raw' type. This is done with heavy metal driers added to the mix. While I'm not all that uncomfortable with having those in my furniture finishes, the notion of adding them to my food preparation surfaces makes me nervous.
So for your garden bench, the difference would be in how quickly the oil cures, or hardens. Other factors affecting the cure rate would be the materials you used, how dry they are, the temperature, weather, the solvent type and amount you may have used in mixing the oil, the rate and method of application, and likely several other factors I've missed.
So either kind on the outdoor furniture, and neither kind is necessary on the cutting boards. If you MUST use something on the cutting boards, get it from the cooking specialty store or catalog. Otherwise, just hot water & a stiff scrubbing. And it will likely need replacing in 20 years or so.
Patriarch
I use walnut oil on our cutting boards and have been quite happy with it. Walnut oil does polymerize, but it seems to do so faster at room temperature than tung oil and linseed oil. One of these days I'll remember to quantify the speed of polymerization with a quick DSC run.
RB
patriarch < wrote:
RB wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@spamfree.com:
And the walnut oil generally is free of the heavy metal driers, too. ;-)
Patriarch
When I worked in a butchers shop we scrapped it clean. A wire brush would tear it up.
"Boiled" linseed oil is a holdover term from when the oil was heated while air was bubbled in at a very controlled rate so that the oil would perform a part of the polymerization process. Today, it refers to linseed oil that has driers in it. These driers are typically heavy metals so I would not use it for any cooking, serving, or eating ware. Raw linseed oil does not have any driers in it. As a result, it will not cure in any meaningful length of time. There are several food safe finishes out there, among which Walnut oil is a relatively inexpensive drying oil. Just be aware that some people may be allergic to it. There are other food safe oil finishes that do not have this issue. As for the garden bench, a linseed oil finish offers very little protection and will likely turn black after a few years or less. I have read that in some parts of the country, items finished with boiled linseed oil serve as food for a type of fungus that will also turn black. If you really wish to use a penetrating oil finish on your garden bench, there are several meant for outdoor use such as Penofin, Cabot, etc.
Good Luck
"john west++++" wrote in message news:SH5uc.534$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe3-win.server.ntli.net...
Baron responds:
Agreed. I tried, some years ago, to protect (and bring back) some old tool handles...outdoor storage of picks, rakes and similar tools seems to be more of a rule than an exception in many areas of the rural south. Coated them with BLO. Then recoated. Then put back in use. Before one summer's end, the tool handles were a fairly nasty black.
Charlie Self "The test and the use of man's education is that he finds pleasure in the exercise of his mind." Jacques Barzun
We used a special type of wire brush. It was a series of flat blades, about
3/16" wide. Soft of a bunch of mini scrapers about the thickness of a wire, but wide. We used a dilute leash solution to sanitize. Never used any oils.The cold-pressed "organic" varieties do, however, normally contain nut proteins. Can be bad for about .01% of the population. Extracted commercial stuff is free of same, but is likely to make folks who worry about siccative residue in BLO nervous, because the solvents they use are pretty harsh.
"patriarch snipped-for-privacy@nospam.comcastDOTnet" RB wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@spamfree.com:
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