food safe oils

IIRC, coconut oil doesn't dry so I would skip it (ditto mineral oil).

I would think that any oil that dries and which is derived from something edible would be fine. Personally, I use tung oil or boiled linseed oil, both are easy to find. Yes, the BLO has dryers in it but once cured it is fine.

"dadiOH" wrote in news:m6kuv3$thv$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Your only hope of avoiding a taint if left in contact with food containing lipids is to use an inert mineral oil or wax, or to use a coating that when fully cured is oil and solvent resistant.

I have a knife here that has an oak handle that was hot impregnated with pure paraffin wax (by repeatedly melting the wax into the surface with a hot air gun) when I made it some 20 years ago. It gets washed up normally nearly every day, with the only care being to hand dry it after use as it has a carbon steel blade. The handle will still take a good sheen if buffed with a paper towel and there has been absolulely no deterioration.

Many cooking oils will go rancid.

Mineral oil shouldn't get gummy if you give it time to cure.

Linseed oil keeps popping up on all the sites for "food safe wood finishing."

Mineral oil is my choice. If it is getting gummy, too much is being applied. I've used in many times and never had a problem. Put on a few applications over time, not one big glop.

Cooking oil can go rancid.

There's always these:

or forget the oil and use shellac - you eat it all the time.

Just Wondering wrote in news:548eaff4$0$11527$882e7ee2@usenet- news.net:

Mineral oil doesn't cure.

Maybe that's the problem I encountered. Will have to try a lighter coat.

I thought I heard that coconut oil wouldn't go rancid but will have to do more research.

I am going to try on a test piece and leave it to see what happens.

Yeah, I've got those. There are a limited number of oils that "dry", I found out walnut oil is one too.

On Mon, 15 Dec 2014 14:13:23 -0800, Electric Comet

Here, you can try any of these.

Yeah I may just go with beeswax. It's easy to communicate that to a customer too. Unless they don't know what is a bee.

Carnuba wax is great if you have a buffing wheel to apply it. I'm not talking about Carnuba with an asterisk that comes in a paste for waxing cars. I'm talking about the solid blocks of 100% wax straight from the palm leaves.

The trouble with that is water will leave the surface spotty. It's impracticable as a salad bowl finish. Graham

One cup of mineral oil and 3 oz by weight of beeswax. Heat until the beeswax melts. Safest way is a 250 oven for 30 minutes.

Walnut oil is good because it polymerizes. Be aware of nut allergies.

Mineral oil by itself is ok, and it does NOT go sticky in my experience.

Apply thin coats, always.

Which form does it take after this? Is it like a paste or hard like a wax or liquid?

Yes, as do a few others I've found out.

It has done so on metal surfaces.

It has no place to go on metal. Wood absorbs it and becomes sealed in the process.

Which is pretty much like the products from Clapham:

Note, however, that 'boiled linseed oil' is NOT considered food safe; the 'boiled' variant has additives. Find USP (pharmacology grade, in the US) linseed oil if you want a food-safe product.

I noticed that yesterday at the paint store. They had plain linseed oil. It wasn't cheap. They also had linseed oil soap but it didn't list the ingredients. They had butcher-block oil but it was expensive.

I thought raw linseed oil did not cure. Am I mistaken?