finish on butcher block question

For red oak? None that I know of as it is not a good material. White oak should be OK with mineral oil. \Ed

Traditional "finish" for butcher blocks is salted tallow or lard, depending on what was cut upon it last.

Of course, traditionalists wouldn't use a splintery wood like oak, either. Those rays are natural points of cleavage.

Mineral oil is light grease from a different source, and less the salt, a shelter for bacteria with lipid cell walls.

When I was in school I worked in a grocery/butcher shop. We cleaned the cutting blocks with a bleach solution and metal brush. Nothing was ever put on top after. They may have had a finish when new, but that would have been some years before. They had a nice contoured top from years of cutting. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net

Different health department stuff. We worked 35 years ago in NY with the old standard, salting the block every night.

Were you a member of the now defunct AMBWU (Amalgamated Meat-Cutters and Butcher Workers Union) ? Always loved that name.