I am going to make several cutting boards out of 3/4" red oak and give
away as Christmas gifts. Any suggestions as to how to finish them would
be appreciated. I think I read somewhere that mineral oil works well and
if so how many coats and how often should it be done
e mail works great for me

TIA
Andy
Franklin, t

A search of this news group revealed this document:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.w...7d27438c2d96f8

Jim
www.woodblog.com

andy anderson wrote:
I am going to make several cutting boards out of 3/4" red oak and give
away as Christmas gifts. Any suggestions as to how to finish them would
be appreciated.

I can't seem to find it just now, but I do remember someone saying that
anything which tends to waterproof the boards also inhibits the
bacteria-absorbing action of wooden cutting boards.

Chris

Terrible choice of wood for a cutting board BTW. A tight-grained wood such
as maple is a better choice.

My family has used naked wood cutting boards for a couple of generations and
has yet to loose a member.
No finish is necessary.


-Steve


"andy anderson" wrote in message
...
I am going to make several cutting boards out of 3/4" red oak and give
away as Christmas gifts. Any suggestions as to how to finish them would
be appreciated. I think I read somewhere that mineral oil works well and
if so how many coats and how often should it be done
e mail works great for me

TIA
Andy
Franklin, t

andy anderson writes:

I am going to make several cutting boards out of 3/4" red oak and give
away as Christmas gifts. Any suggestions as to how to finish them would
be appreciated.

Red oak is porous.

Don't think it is a good choice for a cutting board.

Might want to use maple.

Lew

Lew Hodgett wrote:
andy anderson writes:

I am going to make several cutting boards out of 3/4" red oak and give
away as Christmas gifts. Any suggestions as to how to finish them would
be appreciated.

Red oak is porous.

Don't think it is a good choice for a cutting board.

Might want to use maple.


Yes, maple is a good choice. Also beech may be available.

--

FF

andy anderson wrote:

I am going to make several cutting boards out of 3/4" red oak and give
away as Christmas gifts. Any suggestions as to how to finish them would
be appreciated. I think I read somewhere that mineral oil works well and
if so how many coats and how often should it be done
e mail works great for me

TIA
Andy
Franklin, t

save the red oak for something else

maple is the de facto standard, for good reason.

Dave

If you really want to use red oak, use a salad bowl varnish. It is non
toxic when properly cured and should fill pours if coated enough.
Actually its really a great finish to work with. I know my local
woodcraft carries it, but I'm not sure who else does and I can't
remember the maker at this moment.

don

Maybe you're just lucky. Several members of the previous two
generations of my family have died. How old is your grandfather?

Stephen M wrote:
Terrible choice of wood for a cutting board BTW. A tight-grained wood such
as maple is a better choice.

My family has used naked wood cutting boards for a couple of generations and
has yet to loose a member.
No finish is necessary.

I agree. But I also understand that we now live in a different time, different bacteria, some immune to the antibiotics livestock are given. Also reference other critters like mad cow disease, something our relatives of past never had to content with. My relatives used to slaughter their own animals, some would drink the blood warm which was common at the time, but don’t even think about doing that today. Nope, we’re in a different world now.

I thought about the cutting board thing, too. There are two kinds of cutting boards, those you use and those you hang on the wall and look at. For a board intended to be used, perhaps a really nice, heavy wood board with a large recessed area that a thin plastic cutting board can drop into. You can make the wood base out of any wood, any finish since it won’t be in contact with any food, only food juices that get tossed. And the plastic part can be tossed into a dishwasher. Cutting board plastic is available in diferent colors and thichnesses at places like Tap Plastic.

Hi: AA
I used cooking oil,olive oil. I made one of poplar and you can see it at
this blog
http://mywoodwork.blogspot.com/ . "Cutting board for trailer"

Peter Mulieri
"andy anderson" wrote in message
...
I am going to make several cutting boards out of 3/4" red oak and give
away as Christmas gifts. Any suggestions as to how to finish them would
be appreciated. I think I read somewhere that mineral oil works well and
if so how many coats and how often should it be done
e mail works great for me

TIA
Andy
Franklin, t

I've learned you should never use cooking oils to finish a cutting
board. Cooking oils go rancid. Yuck. Mineral oil is a poor choice as
well as it never cures. Walnut oil cures slow but is a good choice and
smells nice. I've used this and Tung oil with good results.

Neil

toolguy wrote:

I've learned you should never use cooking oils to finish a cutting
board. Cooking oils go rancid. Yuck. Mineral oil is a poor choice as
well as it never cures. Walnut oil cures slow but is a good choice and
smells nice. I've used this and Tung oil with good results.

Neil



I've tried using tung oil manytimes, but each time I get blisters on my
tongue.

(grin)

-Astria

On 31 Oct 2005 19:36:58 -0800, "toolguy"
scribbled:

I've learned you should never use cooking oils to finish a cutting
board. Cooking oils go rancid. Yuck. Mineral oil is a poor choice as
well as it never cures. Walnut oil cures slow but is a good choice and
smells nice. I've used this and Tung oil with good results.

Has anybody actually ever had a cutting board go rancid on them? IME,
with normal wiping & washing, the oil comes off before it gets a
chance to go rancid. I've used Canola & olive oil with no ill effects.
I also use those oil on pasta boards (bread boards to you ethnic
types) which get a lot less use than cutting boards and no rancidity
yet after many years.

Luigi
Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address
www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/humour.html
www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/antifaq.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...ct_Woodworking

Luigi wrote:

Has anybody actually ever had a cutting board go rancid on them? IME,

with normal wiping & washing, the oil comes off before it gets a
chance to go rancid. I've used Canola & olive oil with no ill effects.


Me, too. Been doing it now for years. On cutting boards that I use
constantly (frustrated chef here) to the spoons, stirrers, dippers,
ladles, spatulas, and salad tongs that I make to sell and give away.

I am thinking that some people leave their used boards and utensils in
the sink in dishwater or something like that.

Never, ever, not once have I had a problem with olive oil or canola oil
going bad. Not since I started making utensils and cutting boards
almost 35 years ago. (35?...yikes!)

I soak them for a couple of days in warm oil, them dry them off, and re
- oil as needed with a quick coat and paper towel about every 6 months
or so.

Robert

wrote in message
oups.com...
Luigi wrote:

Has anybody actually ever had a cutting board go rancid on them? IME,

with normal wiping & washing, the oil comes off before it gets a
chance to go rancid. I've used Canola & olive oil with no ill effects.


Me, too. Been doing it now for years. On cutting boards that I use
constantly (frustrated chef here) to the spoons, stirrers, dippers,
ladles, spatulas, and salad tongs that I make to sell and give away.


Incomplete oxidation is what rancid means. If the entire surface is exposed
to the open air, no rancid. If you lay it on the counter top for a few
days, don't flip it over unless you're prepared to wash it.

Best to go bare, and make distinctive boards for food to be consumed raw and
food to be cooked.

If you must oil, use something like walnut oil, because it cures. Uncured
finishes provide a haven for oil-soluble dirt and bacteria with hydrophobic
layers exposed to the environment. To get them off, you have to wash away
the oil. Seems a silly way to do things. Same with porous woods, where
there are more physical hiding spots. In order to root the gunk out, you
have to scrape it out of the pores.

I went over to AmericasTestKitchen.com and looked up cutting boards in their science section. They conducted a laboratory test growing food bacteria on both plastic and wood cutting boards. Both surfaces grow about the same amount of bacteria. Both prove similar surfaces the bacteria can cling to/hold on to. The bacteria stay alive for close to 60hrs on either surface. After cleaning each surface with 1/4 cup bleach to 1 gal water, both surfaces had similar bacteria residue still alive and able to grow in a petri dish, the plastic cutting board had a little less bacteria but not enough of a difference that it matters. Bottom line, it’s not what material your cutting board is made of, it is how it is cleaned. Plastic can be tossed into a dishwasher/sanitized. There was no mention of the type of oil to use on a wooden cutting board, tho I recall seeing it mentioned in a back issue of Cook’s magazine (the publication of America’s Test Kitchen). I believe it was vegetable oil/salad oil. I’ll see if I can find it and post back here.

Joe2:

I believe it was indeed salad oil. But you will never, ever win this
or make your point to the satisfaction of some.

My red oak (there... I said it.... I admit it) cutting board has been
wonderfully resilient over the years, but I do not use it for meats of
any type. It has literally seen hundreds of pounds of veggies,
homemade bread, etc. on its top over the years. As advised by my
"real" chef friend, it is washed with bath tub cleanser and a stainless
scrub pad after each use.

For meats, my cutting board is some kind of nasty hard birch that shone
when it came out of the planer, and my carving/serving board is maple.

On something as silly as cutting boards wood stuff in the kitchen, I
say use what you like if it doesn't make you sick. I am sure that many
of the old bowls, cutting boards and kitchen utensils that were in use
for a few hundred years before the turn of century developed their
patina from them animal and vegetable fats that were absorbed into the
wood.

Think about a wooden ladle soup into a wooden soup bowl eaten with a
wooden spoon. Yet these folks didn't have antibacterial soaps,
chlorine cleanser, Mahoney's special curing walnut oils, and sadly many
didn't have the luxury of choosing all their woods. Seems like they
did alright in retrospect.

I am wondering why this thread hasn't started a flame war as it has in
the past...

Robert

wrote in message
oups.com...
Joe2:

I believe it was indeed salad oil. But you will never, ever win this
or make your point to the satisfaction of some.


Think about a wooden ladle soup into a wooden soup bowl eaten with a
wooden spoon. Yet these folks didn't have antibacterial soaps,
chlorine cleanser, Mahoney's special curing walnut oils, and sadly many
didn't have the luxury of choosing all their woods. Seems like they
did alright in retrospect.


Your comment got me to thinking (a dangerous thing indeed...) - look at all
of the wooden salad bowels in use that see gallons of vegetable oil soaked
into them, and only really see a casual washing. It's not like housewives
all across America spend any extra attention really super scrubbing their
salad bowls to get the veggie oil residue out. Yet - it's been quite a
while since I've read of an outbreak of rancid veggie oil related illness.
Not that I discount the notion, but I have to wonder how much is being made
of the issue. Sometimes these things take on lives of their own in forums
like this - become "facts" in spite of themselves.

--

-Mike-

Mike Marlow wrote:

wrote in message
oups.com...

Joe2:

I believe it was indeed salad oil. But you will never, ever win this
or make your point to the satisfaction of some.


Think about a wooden ladle soup into a wooden soup bowl eaten with a
wooden spoon. Yet these folks didn't have antibacterial soaps,
chlorine cleanser, Mahoney's special curing walnut oils, and sadly many
didn't have the luxury of choosing all their woods. Seems like they
did alright in retrospect.



Your comment got me to thinking (a dangerous thing indeed...) - look at all
of the wooden salad bowels in use that see gallons of vegetable oil soaked
into them, and only really see a casual washing. It's not like housewives
all across America spend any extra attention really super scrubbing their
salad bowls to get the veggie oil residue out. Yet - it's been quite a
while since I've read of an outbreak of rancid veggie oil related illness.
Not that I discount the notion, but I have to wonder how much is being made
of the issue. Sometimes these things take on lives of their own in forums
like this - become "facts" in spite of themselves.

I've smelled "rancid" cutting boards. You haven't been getting out
enough, Mike. Rancid bowls and boards is NOT a figment of the
public's imagination. Proper care prevents it, though.

http://www.hollandbowlmill.com/faq.htm - just one of many hits on the
topic.

"Mike Marlow" wrote in message
...
Your comment got me to thinking (a dangerous thing indeed...) - look at
all
of the wooden salad bowels in use that see gallons of vegetable oil soaked
into them, and only really see a casual washing.


Fiber in salad does help the bowels, and indigestible oils lubricate them.

As to salad bowls and oils - or popcorn bowls, for that matter - storing
them stacked for any length of time will bring up the rancid reek.
Fortunately, since it's incomplete oxidative process at cause, a wipe with
bleach seems all they need

On Tue, 1 Nov 2005 01:20:01 +0000, joe2
wrote:


Stephen M Wrote:

My family has used naked wood cutting boards for a couple of
generations and
has yet to loose a member.
No finish is necessary.



I agree. But I also understand that we now live in a different time,
different bacteria, some immune to the antibiotics livestock are given.

not really. same bacteria but acclimated to antibiotics. what does
that have to do with cutting boards? are your cutting boards made out
of commercial drug company antibiotics?




Also reference other critters like mad cow disease, something our
relatives of past never had to content with.

sure they did. they just didn't have that name for it. and they didn't
have factory farming practices to spread it around so fast.

besides, wood cutting boards would probably resist Creutzfeldt-Jakob
better than plastic anyway.



My relatives used to
slaughter their own animals, some would drink the blood warm which was
common at the time, but don’t even think about doing that today. Nope,
we’re in a different world now.

neither would I, but for different reasons.

I bet your ancestors weren't factory farmers, eh?

On 1 Nov 2005 22:14:26 -0800, wrote:

Joe2:

I believe it was indeed salad oil. But you will never, ever win this
or make your point to the satisfaction of some.

My red oak (there... I said it.... I admit it) cutting board has been
wonderfully resilient over the years, but I do not use it for meats of
any type. It has literally seen hundreds of pounds of veggies,
homemade bread, etc. on its top over the years. As advised by my
"real" chef friend, it is washed with bath tub cleanser and a stainless
scrub pad after each use.

For meats, my cutting board is some kind of nasty hard birch that shone
when it came out of the planer, and my carving/serving board is maple.

On something as silly as cutting boards wood stuff in the kitchen, I
say use what you like if it doesn't make you sick. I am sure that many
of the old bowls, cutting boards and kitchen utensils that were in use
for a few hundred years before the turn of century developed their
patina from them animal and vegetable fats that were absorbed into the
wood.

Think about a wooden ladle soup into a wooden soup bowl eaten with a
wooden spoon. Yet these folks didn't have antibacterial soaps,
chlorine cleanser, Mahoney's special curing walnut oils, and sadly many
didn't have the luxury of choosing all their woods. Seems like they
did alright in retrospect.

I am wondering why this thread hasn't started a flame war as it has in
the past...

Robert


my mom has a pine cutting board that was her mom's. it has a dip in
the middle of maybe 1/4" from use. I have eaten plenty of food cut on
it and (tm joat) I at'nt dead

wrote in message
...
On Tue, 1 Nov 2005 01:20:01 +0000, joe2
wrote:
My relatives used to
slaughter their own animals, some would drink the blood warm which was
common at the time, but don't even think about doing that today. Nope,
we're in a different world now.

neither would I, but for different reasons.

I bet your ancestors weren't factory farmers, eh?


Masai.