salad bowl finish & wood

[Joseph M Lary]

I have a salad bowl to do for someone . What are you feeling on wood types and finishes for the bowl . I have some Elm but it has soft & hard grain in it, will a salad bowl finish fill or seal this ?? I do have some of Mike Mahoneys walnut oil, and pure tong oil with citric solvent.

[Reed Gray]

I have been using the Doctor's Woodshop walnut oil. It has some carnuba in it and I prefer it. Several coats will seal up most woods. What little elm I have turned will soak up a lot of oil. Same with sycamore. Mike's oil is good as well.

robo hippy

[Pat Scott]

Elm is fine to use for a salad bowl, as is Maple, Walnut, Ash, Cherry, and similar woods.

When you say that your Elm has soft and hard grain in it, are you referring to hardwood/softwood? Or that it has soft punky areas? If punky, find another piece to use.

What type of finish to use is a matter of personal preference and a highly subjective subject. I like to use Danish Oil instead of Walnut Oil. I've also used Salad Bowl Finish, but I dillute it 50/50 with Mineral Spirits. The reason for diluting is I want to thin it so that the finish soaks into the wood instead of building up on the surface.

[Jim Burr]

Despite the conspiracy theorists, and there are several here...any finish...once cured, is food safe.

[Greg Just]

Despite the conspiracy theorists, and there are several here...any finish...once cured, is food safe.

Agree with Jim - Bob Flexner's book on finishing covers it all.

[Bernie Weishapl]

i have made many elm salad bowls. I also use Drs workshop Walnut oil with the carnuba wax. I don't like film finishes.

[Jake Helmboldt]

I have a large salad bowl from beech and used mostly straight walnut oil. I also made an oil and beeswax emulsion and put several coats on to "feed" the wood. Every now and then I just re-oil with the walnut oil which keeps it from drying out and gives it a nice lustre. A film finish doesn't make sense (to me) for a utility bowl. Eventually it is going to look lousy and need to be redone.

[Peter Blair]

I'm with Jake. I use beeswax and mineral oil for a lot of my everyday use items. I would stay away from anything with citrus as there are a some people who are allergic to citrus. The great thing about beeswax and mineral oil is it is really easy for the new owner to apply a coat any time.

[robert baccus]

Turning catalogs are constantly turning out "new" finishing products with buzzword names chasing our money. There are rarely any new profound finishes invented--just new mixes of old finishing materials. For instance "salad bowl finish" is merely tung oil, mineral spirits and cobalt drier but you can bet it's 5 times more expensive than your own oil/thinner. Also when they fail to reveal the ingredients it is impossible to deal with foulups and climate conditions at your shop.

[Joseph M Lary]

Thanks you for all your input,got 3 bowls out of elm and sycamore done up so far .