Cuttingboard finish - YOUR experience

[Bob Falk]

Walnut oil is the best IMO...cheap, natural, totally edible (you buy it in the grocery and the rest of the bottle can be used for salads, etc.)...if you want more sheen put some beeswax on after the oil dries....I think mineral oil ok, but as has been said, its slow to dry. I have serving boards and salad bowls I have made (used regularly) that are 25 years old and look nearly new as I put a new coat of walnut oil on periodically (every year or so, or when the wood looks dry). My $0.02

[Jay Park]

Agree with Kent, beewax and mineral combo works best. Used it for many years.

Jay

[Clay Fails]

I used General brand Salad Bowl Finish ( which I believe you are referring to ) and found that 1. It holds up very well 2. It has and maintains a semi gloss sheen and 3. Wipes clean very easily

+2 on the GF salad bowl finish. I've used it on many boards given as gifts with no issues that i know of.

[JimT Thompson]

We are talking about a cutting board. Sheen is irrelevant. Gets a lot of knife marks. I only use extra virgin olive oil, applied sparingly and wiped off. Reoil every six months or so. Been using the same cutting board (hard maple) for 15 years.

Ditto except applied liberally then wiped off. Maple and purpleheart. We scrub it in hot water pretty much daily, oil it regularly every few months when it seems to need it. Gets daily use.

[Jeffrey Langdell]

I'd like to add some clarity to this long string of comments. This info comes from studying the MSDS (safety data sheet) of each product. All of the products I have studied fall in to these categories....

Pure mineral oil- This is the most common "cutting board oil". The advantage is that it is the cheapest. The disadvantage is that it never dries and requires the most maintenance. Also, anyone interested in "natural, non-toxic" wont like the fact that this is a petroleum product. It is sold by countless names. Boos Mystery oil is mostly mineral oil.
Mineral oil blended with wax- The wax adds more protection than plain mineral oil. It will also wear off (on your food) and require maintenance. Once again, the mineral oil is safe, but it is a petroleum product. Howard butcher block and cutting board oils are common.
Salad bowl "finishes"- These are pretty much standard varnishes that have been thinned. They claim to be "safe after 72 hours". This is because they have added mineral spirits, Naptha, benzene, or other solvents to thin the varnish. The advantage is that they offer greater durability. But since they are a surface coating, they will eventually dull and are difficult to re-oil with anything else. Also, they smell bad and are truly toxic until the solvents are fully evaporated. Examples include Behlens Salad Bowl finish and General Finishes Salad Bowl finish.
Nut oils- There are only a few oils that truly soak into the wood fibers and dry. Avoid vegetable oils since they can go rancid. Tung oil and Walnut oil are two that will slowly dry in the wood fibers. They are non-toxic as long as you aren't hyper-allergic to nuts. You can use the cutting board right away and allow it to fully dry over time. "Masters Blend Preserve" makes a blend of nut oils for this purpose.

In Summary- We all have our preferences due to our needs. A factory will use the Solvent based finishes because they dry quickly and look nice on a shelf. A craftsman prefers to see the depth of grain that comes from any oil finish. And if you are "green", organic, healthy, you may prefer the Masters Blend Preserve. Keep up the wood work!

[Wade Lippman]

I use BLO - reapply every 6 months - works for me but I don't put the boards in the sink - just rinse & wipe dry.

Good for you! It bewilders me why people use mineral oil, olive oil, walnut oil, and so many other strange things when BLO is so much more effective.

[Dave Aronson]

I use mineral oil and after than I rub in bees wax I get from a local beekeeper. It seems to make the luster last and it smells great. Every once in a while I re-apply the oil and rub in more wax. For the few boards I have made I give a small bar of wax with the board. BTW, they are end grain boards. I can't believe the amount of long grain boards I see people buy. It makes me sad.

[glenn bradley]

Another mineral oil only guy here. I flood the board till it won't take anymore and then wipe it off like I changed my mind. I come back every hour or so and keep wiping until the weeping stops (this can be a few days with end grain boards). I give an 8oz bottle of mineral oil with the boards and have several that have been in heavy service without issue (I use Titebond-III for glue). Most folks who cook know how to take care of their tools but, I include a 'care and feeding' sheet with each board as well.

[roger wiegand]

Either walnut oil or pure tung oil (not a tung oil varnish), whichever is close to hand. Re-apply about once a year, every few years scrape the surface to get rid of stains and accumulated whatever and re-finish.

Curious #36 in what way BLO is "so much more effective". I've also used it and can't really tell the difference once it dries, aside from it smells so nice (to me, others don't seem to like that smell in the kitchen, which is why I don't use it).

I've never understood cutting boards finished with a film forming product-- one cut and you''re done.

[cody michael]

I found a finish at "menards" I really like it, it is mineral oil with beeswax, works alot better then the straight mineral oil I use to use, lasts longer, and water beads up on top of the cutting board.

[Prashun Patel]

The key to your 'failure' was not the finish you used. Don't think that by using a different finish next time, you'll completely avoid what has happened.

Don't also think that you did anything wrong or that this situation is hard to fix.

Just take more of your finish and wetsand it in with 320 or 400 grit sandpaper. You'll get back to baby butt right skippety.

[Rich Engelhardt]

It bewilders me why people use mineral oil, olive oil, walnut oil, and so many other strange things when BLO is so much more effective.

Probably because we don't much care for putting heavy metals inside our bodies.
Boiled linseed oil isn't boiled. Metallic driers are added to raw linseed oil to make it dry - with the term "dry" meaning, more or less dry.

There is a food grade version made from flax oil that you can buy. If you really want to use linseed oil, that's the stuff you should be using.

[Bob Falk]

Walnut oil is the only nut oil that will not get rancid.....there's nothing wrong with mineral oil but I personally like using a nut oil instead of a petroleum product. Walnut oil will definitely dry (so will mineral oil) but it does take longer than a regular finish. I put a couple coats of straight walnut oil and then the last coat is a oil/beeswax blend. Any re-freshening coats get the oil/wax blend. Re-freshening is a function of use----more use, more frequent re-freshening!

+1 walnut oil. I have a 10 year old salad bowl that is used almost daily that looks almost new. I recoat a few times a year. Key is, you have to dry them off after washing, and I use dish soap. My cutting boards take a little more abuse and I recoat a little more often, but results are the same. Walnut oil is relatively cheap and available in most grocery stores.

[Bob Glenn]

Mineral oil here. I wouldn't use olive oil as a previous poster suggested, because it can become rancid, IMHO.

[Wade Lippman]

Probably because we don't much care for putting heavy metals inside our bodies.
Boiled linseed oil isn't boiled. Metallic driers are added to raw linseed oil to make it dry - with the term "dry" meaning, more or less dry.

There is a food grade version made from flax oil that you can buy. If you really want to use linseed oil, that's the stuff you should be using.

Can you document there is a danger? It is hard to believe there is any danger unless you oil it daily and eat scraping from the cutting board. Even then, I suspect the metals are tied up in the hardened oil and pass through the body harmlessly.
But I could be wrong... Any documation?

I wonder what Flexner recommends for cutting boards?