Cutting Board Finish

[Tullie Templet]

I made a good friend a cutting board for Christmas and have to finish it with a product without tree nut oil. I was going to do paraffin and mineral oil but couldn't find paraffin so I used Howard's butcher block conditioner. Its mineral oil, bees wax and carnuba wax. I applied it warmed up and 4 coats, its seemed to stop soaking it up at that point. problem is when I run it under water to clean it, it soaks the water up amd raises the grain. so I soaked it in plain mineral oil to the point that mineral oil seeps out of pours after I wipe it off. but it seems to still soak up water. Am I missimg something or is this normal? Seems it should repel the water more or am I thinkimg wrong? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

[David Schoemaker]

Bees wax melted with mineral oil will do the trick to make it water resistant. 1/4 cup wax to 1 cup mineral oil, youtube has good videos on it.

Dave

[Steve Jenkins]

You don't say what kind of wood it is. If it is red oak or other ring porous wood I'd suggest making a new one.

[Tullie Templet]

The Howard's stuff I used is beeswax and mineral oil but the board is not water resistant. And the wood I used is Maple, Walnut and Cherry.

[Jim Becker]

Try to keep the walnut to a minimum and for decorative purposes, Tullie...it's a somewhat open grain species. Maple is the traditional and Cherry is close-grained, albeit softer. None of that matters if they are purely for decorative purposes, but for actual use, hard and the least porous is best.

I generally only use mineral oil on my active maple cutting board and it just gets renewed frequently...my island is maple (no cutting on it!) and our counters are soapstone, so oiling is something that happens anyway every month or three. (When we remember to do it)