Is this the right Mineral Oil for Cutting Boards...

[Wayne Wheeling]

Is this the right Mineral Oil for Cutting Boards? What I find at the Drug Store and grocery store say to use 2-3 Tbsps. for use as a laxative! Is this the stuff I want for a finish on a cutting board? Sorry, if it is a dumb question...

[Brian Kent]

Wayne, that is exactly the right stuff and that is exactly where I found mine in Walgreen's. Sort of tells you that it's food safe if you can drink the stuf.

Brian

[Prashun Patel]

It also has the beneficial effect of keeping you regular, albeit overly regular.

[Wayne Wheeling]

Thanks! I just wasn't sure when I read it's use! Ok now, I rub these cutting boards down with a laxative until they don't really take anymore...and then I give to my friends to eat off of. Right?

[Tom Veatch]

Thanks! I just wasn't sure when I read it's use! Ok now, I rub these cutting boards down with a laxative until they don't really take anymore...and then I give to my friends to eat off of. Right?

Well, they don't really "eat off of" the cutting board, normally. Check the dosage on the container for use of the mineral oil as a laxative. There won't be anywhere close to that dosage transferred to the food prepared on the cutting board. Also, normally that small amount of transfer will be distributed among all the persons consuming that food. The total amount of mineral oil transferred to each consumer will be miniscule, far below the laxative dosage.

[Wayne Wheeling]

Thanks for the answers. I'll get a bottle tomorrow! I have been using General Salad Bowl Finish, thought I might try something different. Just wanted to get the correct stuff!

[Marc Casebolt]

I just finished a cutting board for the kitchen. It's just a simple thing made of hard maple boards glued together with bread board ends. After scraping it smooth I wiped it down with water, and when dry scraped it again to get the fuzziness off then soaked it good with mineral oil. After a day or so I put water on it and scraped it again. Now that it is in use it has gotten a bit fuzzy feeling, but I think it will smooth out on its own in time.

Marc

[Wayne Wheeling]

I just put a coating on the 2 bread boards. The mineral oil is a lot thicker than I expected. Do I need to cut the Mineral Oil with something before wiping on. I was figuring on a finishing schedule of a single application applied every other day for 3 applications. It really brought out the character in the wood!

[Brad Wood]

I don't thin it, and I don't think you need a "finishing schedule" either. I lay out a piece of saran wrap, oil up one side real good, lay in on the wrap, oil up the other side real good, making sure to get the edges, then wrap the whole thing up for a couple hours... this has worked well for me over numerous boards. For end grain cutting boards, expect to put a heck of a lot of oil on before you wrap it up... when you wrap it up, you want to make sure there is plenty of standing oil (for end grain or regular).

[Alan Zenreich]

You might find this entertaining. A couple of weeks ago I finally moved a freestanding butcherblock out of my garage and into my kitchen. When we moved to this house 20 years ago, we did not have room in the kitchen for this block that we used in our apartment, so into the garage it went.

We recently reorganized the space and it was time to put the butcher block back into service. The block is 24x24x13" end grain maple, double dovetail construction. On its heavy wooden legs, it stands 34" tall. It weighs a couple of hundred pounds.

We sanded the top of the block cleaned all the other surfaces and started oiling the top.
Pour on mineral oil, watch it get soaked into the end grain.
Pour on more, it gets sucked in.

Over the course of about 7 hours, the block took 62 ounces of oil. Nearly two quarts! That's about half the capacity of my motorcycle...

After the oiling, I applied several coats of a beeswax/mineral oil mix.

The block looks great, and it's like having an old friend come back home.

[Brad Wood]

Over the course of about 7 hours, the block took 62 ounces of oil. Nearly two quarts! That's about half the capacity of my motorcycle...

.

Nice!! - yes, I suppose the "time" invested in getting the oil to soak in would be directly relative to the size of the piece.

interesting comparison you draw to your motorcycle, good stuff. ... "i just did an oil change on my butcher block". I guess the whole "dino VS syn" debate doesn't apply here does it?

[Alan Zenreich]

Brad,

I do use synthetic in my motorcycle <s>

However there is apparently no hi-tech butcher block oil that works better than drug store mineral oil... though you can certainly pay more.

[Brad Wood]

Brad,

I do use synthetic in my motorcycle <s>

However there is apparently no hi-tech butcher block oil that works better than drug store mineral oil... though you can certainly pay more.

I'm a Redline man myself.

I'm sure there is someone out there that would sell you some "snake oil" at ten times the price of mineral oil. ... if you peel back the top label you just might find it all comes from the same manufacturer

[Mike Null]

Just plain old fashioned mineral oil is the best thing to use. Straight out of the bottle. More than one coat then another every few months.

A big advantage of mineral oil besides being "food safe" is that it won't turn rancid as will some other oils.

[Howard Acheson]

Here is something that might help.

An excellent treatment for wooden food preparation surfaces like cutting boards and butcher blocks is a mixture of mineral oil and either paraffin or beeswax. This is what is used on many commercial wood surfaces. It will last longer and be more protective than just mineral oil. Mineral oil can be found in most supermarkets in the pharmacy section or in a true pharmacy. Paraffin is found in the canning section of the store or in a hardware store.

Heat the oil in a double boiler and shave in some wax. The exact proportions are not critical--a 5-6 parts of oil to one part of wax will work fine. Stir the mixture until all the wax is liquefied. Apply the mixture heavily and let it set 10-12 hours or overnight. Next day do it again and continue until the wood will no longer absorb the finish. Let it set for 10-12 hours and then lightly scrape off any excess. Then buff it with a rag.

Reapply whenever the wood begins to look dry.

Never put a wood board in the dishwasher and don't soak it in dishwater for long periods.

Whether you elect to mix in the wax of not, heat the mineral spirits to 140 - 150 degrees and brush it on. It will be more viscous and will soak into the wood more rapidly and deeply. Some even heat their boards in the oven to about 90 - 100 degrees. Don't heat the board if it is newly glued up. Wait for a year and do it when you are re-oiling it.