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Oil for Cutting Board

Dale Wallace

Dale Wallace

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58
Location
Chicago, Illinois
What oil do you prefer to use for cutting boards ? I'm looking for something that darkens the wood enough and it is food safe of course.

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I'll second the vote for plain ol' mineral oil. It darkens the wood a bit and helps protect it. You can buy "butcher block oil" from places like Bed Bath and Beyond, but if you read the fine print, it's just heavily overpriced mineral oil. The wood usually will need to re-oiled every once in a while, depending on how often it's used and washed, but it's as easy as wiping it down with a paper towel and a bit of mineral oil.
 
Vaughn McMillan said:
I'll second the vote for plain ol' mineral oil. It darkens the wood a bit and helps protect it. You can buy "butcher block oil" from places like Bed Bath and Beyond, but if you read the fine print, it's just heavily overpriced mineral oil. The wood usually will need to re-oiled every once in a while, depending on how often it's used and washed, but it's as easy as wiping it down with a paper towel and a bit of mineral oil.
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Hello! And thank you! I used both of the products this morning on some test pieces but they didn't seem to make maple as dark as I'd want it to be. It doesn't have to be anything extreme, lol. Just a warmer or darker tone. I'm considering the use of either Dark Tung oil or Pure Tung oil. Any suggestions or advices ?

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here Dale this may help...
www.worldsafety2018.org

Best Oils Suitable for Your Cutting Board – food safe wood finish

For a food-safe wood finish to give a new look to your cutting board and butcher block, you need the best oil. Let’s explore the best oils for this purpose.
www.worldsafety2018.org www.worldsafety2018.org

and yes Pure tung oil would be fine..
www.realmilkpaint.com

Butcher Block Oil for Cutting Boards and Countertops | Real Milk Paint

Keep your kitchen, food, and work surfaces clean and safe with high-quality, non-toxic butcher block oil. Shop our food grade oils now.
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As others said, mineral oil is a good choice. I blend paraffin with the mineral oil to help seal the pores of the wood a bit better. The mineral oil needs to be heated, then add shavings of paraffin (about 10% by weight) to it until dissolved.
 
I'm with Bill. I melt a little paraffin in with mine. Helps seel the pores and I feel it lasts longer than just plain mineral oil. I use an old pot, hot plate, and a mason jar to make mine. A little bit of the wax goes a long way.
 
Oh, And you're right, it won't make maple very dark.

Best thing to do if you want a darker board would be to use a bit darker wood.
 
Brent Dowell said:
...Best thing to do if you want a darker board would be to use a bit darker wood.
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Either that, or dye the maple you've got - maybe use a diluted Transtint Medium Brown - then put the oil over that.
It has to be a dye. Stains are pigments that just lay on the surface, and will wear away. Dyes actually penetrate a bit and change the color of the wood itself.
 
Will it go deep enough? I know my cutting boards get a fair amount of abuse from knives and scrubby pads. I'd be afraid the dye would wear out.

An end grain board ought to soak it up pretty good though.

guess it would be worth a shot.
 
The other option would be to toast the board in the oven... .Whether that's a good idea or not depends a lot on the glue you used. Some (many) glues let go at pretty low temperatures (relatively speaking), I've had decent luck with Titebond III being relatively robust (it's what I've used on innumerable pizza peals - they have thus far failed in other ways other than the glue joints).

Nice short article here: https://www.popularwoodworking.com/nov15/roast-your-own/
 
Ryan Mooney said:
The other option would be to toast the board in the oven... .Whether that's a good idea or not depends a lot on the glue you used. Some (many) glues let go at pretty low temperatures (relatively speaking), I've had decent luck with Titebond III being relatively robust (it's what I've used on innumerable pizza peals - they have thus far failed in other ways other than the glue joints).

Nice short article here: https://www.popularwoodworking.com/nov15/roast-your-own/
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I like these open mind ideas!! I may do it at a future project. So for now I got a new product that I found out, called Walrus Oil. So I'm gonna try it and see how it works, otherwise back to the good old techniques. Let's see...

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Brent Dowell said:
Will it go deep enough? I know my cutting boards get a fair amount of abuse from knives and scrubby pads. I'd be afraid the dye would wear out.

An end grain board ought to soak it up pretty good though.

guess it would be worth a shot.
Click to expand...
Yeah I agree. I wouldn't risk it with anything but an organic product actually

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All I need to do is pull out the sander and fix it up. Matter of fact, I'm not doing anything important right now, lol.
 
So, I decided to fix my burnt maple board. Man, Sanding a previously oiled piece of wood can be a mess.
I also was out of my board goop, so had to melt up a little more wax and oil mix.

The one thing I was thinking about is edge grain maple is pretty white when freshly sanded, but as these pictures show, it will age over time.

These pictures show, from left to right,
1) Burned
2) Unburned, but heavily used and aged
3) Freshly sanded (Yes, I know you can still see the burn circle, but I got tired of sanding, lol)
4) Freshly oiled.

So, It will probably take a while but the maple should mellow out over a while.



maple_burneddirty.jpgmaple_unburned.jpgmaple_sanded.jpgmaple_freshoiled.jpg
 
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