Is the beall buff food safe?

[Bob Hallowell]

I just made a little serving dish for my sister tonight and put some watco butcher block oil on it cause it's food safe but didn't know if the rouges from the beall were or not?

thanx,
Bob

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have the same question Bob. I did some plates but was afraid to use it.

[Bill Boehme]

If I am not mistaken, the finish is just wax which isn't very durable for food and washing. Even a hard wax like carnauba is soft enough to absorb some food and soap residue, which doesn't seem to be really appetizing if I think about it too much. Then there is all of that other buffing compound stuff like tripoli and white diamond that gets embedded in the mixture. It might be good for polishing your teeth. Carnauba is not harmful by itself, but it might just be a good culture medium for bacteria once it gets contaminated with other residues.

Bill

[Jason Solodow]

Per their website, the Beall system is completely food safe. Myself, I have not used in it on bowls, but I have used it on like salt and pepper mills without a problem. If I were to use it on a bowl, I would not put on the wax, I would just polish with the compound and then the white diamond. The white diamond is supposed to just remove any and all residue from the buffing compound. For my food bowls, I usually either leave it bare, or use Salad Bowl Finish from General Finish. This leaves a nice glossy shine on the bowl and seems to hold up okay.

[Chris Barton]

In general, non-petrolatum based waxes are safe and carnuba wax is completely safe as that it is often used as a food ingredient. That said, I wouldn't use a wax as my finish of choice for a food container. I would use a plant oil like walnut oil, simply because it will be more durable and can easily be reapplied. Bill's point comes to mind as well. Warm detergent water would likely soften the wax and make it, er, less than appealing.

[George Tokarev]

Water gets under wax, and wax itself will swell up a bit if water is left on it. What I like for food stuff is cut poly or curing oil. Use the Minwax wipe-on product as is, flooding and waiting about 15 minutes for a buff off with a paper towel. When dry, scuff as required for fuzz, tack and flood once more, buffing off with a rag when it begins to get tacky. Any shiny spots on the surface can be cut back with a scrubbie or sandpaper, but the surface will have some shedding ability with the resin in it.

[Bob Hallowell]

Thanks For the info guys, I did put on the watco butcher block oil which is a salid bowl coating. I just didn't know if it was safe to buff the oil finish after it was dry. I did just go to their website and it does say it is food safe.

Thanks,
Bob

[Bernie Weishapl]

Thanks from me also for the info. I have some soup bowls I made and used the general finishes Seal-A-Cell and Arm-R-Seal. We have used them now for 5 months and so far so good. Most other bowls that are being used for eating I have put Mahoney's walnut oil on.

[Burt Alcantara]

Bernie,
Is Mahoney's Walnut Oil the same as Hain's Walnut Oil, for that matter, any walnut oil purchased from a grocery?

Burt

[Paul Engle]

Tim Yoder did a cookie cutter on PBS seris on sunday , first was the mineral oil then polished/buff with beeswax. I suppose if it did not go thru the dishwasher it would be ok? dunno

[George Tokarev]

Walnut oil for consumption sometimes has ingredients added to retard spoilage. That's what we want it to do, so read the label. We just want it to cross-link completely, rather than partially. If you're jumpy about the allegen possibilities, you're best to get the industrial stuff which is solvent extracted rather than merely pressed. Pressed might still have a speck of protein or two. Solvent extracts only the oil. Might be that Mahoney's and other walnut-oil based stuff is solvent extracted. They're not likely to tell us, sadly. Don't expect anyone who heard it from TV to believe that oil is safe, however.

Take what you buy, wipe a film of it on a slick surface and see if it skins in a few days. If it does, you should be good.

Mineral oil never cures, so it will still accept bacteria and dissolve odor-causers until it evaporates or is washed away by detergent. Not the best choice in my opinion, bacterial contamination being more likely than anaphylaxis from stray protein. Beeswax is dandy until you're selling outdoors and get some rain blowing around, then it's a white-spotted nightmare.

[Glenn Hodges]

Everything I make used to eat from is finished with tung oil then buffed with the Beal Buffing System. I have never had anyone dead or alive complain about it.