Butcher Block - Salad Oil as finish/sealant

I'm guessing people would look at me and think "that poor guy...he must be plugged up something fierce".

I'm guessing most, except maybe some of the older folks, probably didn't have a clue what its medicinal use was. I use it in the shop to wipe onto my hand tools to keep them from rusting, and as a lube for handplane soles and hand saw blades when I've misplaced my bar of canning wax. Use it for French Polishing, also. I like it better for that than BLO.

Forgot to mention that I use it as a honing oil as well as you uses, also keeps those shop worn hands soft and supple. (Mama likes that) Smells better than BLO (no smell) and if you are having a personal problem, a shot will help down there as well... easier on the 'roids, iffin' you know what I mean... :eek:
 
For what it's worth...

One of the premeir experts on the subject is Dr. Cliver. I took the opportunity to contact Dr. Cliver a while back and query him about his findings as there seemed to be a number of inconsistencies or "half quotes" on various web sites. Dr. Cliver was very accommodating and forwarded an article he authored. View attachment BORDTALK.doc

The article also listed a number of other publications by Dr. Cliver that I located. Acording to Dr. Cliver's findings, contrary to some popular beliefs, wood doesn't seem to have a magical ability to kill bacteria outright. Wood cutting boards do appear to be safer according to his research though. Wood, unlike plastic, absorbs the liquids/bacteria and removes it from contract with food later placed on the same board. Dr. Cliver states though, that digging into the wood will reveal the bacteria is still there but it because it's not sitting on top of the board like a plastic one, greatly reduces the cross contamination likelihood.

The attached article didn't deal with the mineral oil issue, though the link below is to an abstract on one of his other articles. Here's a direct copy that deals in part with the mineral oil question. Note the bold text, "Mineral oil treatment of the wood surface had little effect on the microbiological findings."

So there you have it, wood boards are safer than plastic if properly cleaned and taken care of AND mineral oil does not create a health problem.

Mike
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"The microbiology of plastic and wooden cutting boards was studied, regarding cross-contamination of foods in home kitchens. New and used plastic (four polymers plus hard rubber) and wood(nine hardwoods) cutting boards were cut into 5-cm squares("blocks"). Escherichia coli (two nonpathogenic strains plus type OI57:H7), Listeria innocua, L. monocytogenes, or Salmonella typhimurium was applied to the 25-cm2 block surface in nutrient broth or chicken juice and recovered by soaking the surface in nutrient broth or pressing the block onto nutrient agar, within 3-10 min or up to ca. 12 h later. Bacteria inoculated onto plastic blocks were readily recovered for minutes to hours and would multiply if held overnight. Recoveries from wooden blocks were generally less than those from plastic blocks, regardless of new or used status; differences increased with holding time. Clean wood blocks usually absorbed the inoculum completely within 3-10 min. If these fluids contained 103-104 CFU of bacteria likely to come from raw meat or poultry, the bacteria generally could not be recovered after entering the wood. If =106 CFU were applied, bacteria might be recovered from wood after 12 h at room temperature and high humidity, but numbers were reduced by at least 98%, and often more than 99.9%. Mineral oil treatment of the wood surface had little effect on the microbiological findings. These results do not support the often-heard assertion that plastic cutting boards are more sanitary than wood."
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http://www.ingentaconnect.com/conten...00001/art00003

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/1994/00000057/00000001/art00003
 
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