Thread: Spooncarving and Finishing

If I remember correctly, what you call paraffin oil, we call mineral oil in the US. This is fine for cooking spoons. Personally, I use olive oil, since that's what I cook with. The only problem with olive oil, walnut oil, flaxseed, linseed, canola, etc., is potential allergies. If you are selling the spoons, stick with mineral oil (paraffin oil).

For the bandsaws, I'd suggest checking the local DIY stores and see what's available without you having to take out a mortgage to pay for the shipping. List the available ones that are within your price range, and hopefully, there are folks on here who can give you a review of them. Stick with two wheel saws - no three wheel saws. They seem to have a habit of throwing their blades...
Claude

When you have a bunch of spoons ready to be finished, preheat your oven to 325F.
On a mesh cake rack, over a sheet pan, brush the veg oil of your choice (I use good olive oil)
on each one until they are dripping, especially the ends. Now, into the oven for no longer than 3 minutes 30seconds.

Out of the oven to cool, can you see the air bubbles coming out of the wood in the oil?
Charles' Law (simple gas physics) predicts that hot air expands and cooling air contracts.
As you spoons cool, the cooling contracting air will suck the oil down into the wood.

a) you can't wash it off unless you reheat to 325 or hotter. Any room temp soak in any oil will get blown off in hot soup (Charles' Law says so).
As that wooden soup spoon cools, the hot soup will be sucked into the wood to rot.

b) the oil won't go rancid, thatt's a myth since the oil is in the wood where there's very little air, anyway.

I've even done this with straight beeswax to waterproof a wooden dish. Beeswax melts at about 150F.

I forgot to mention: Don't use Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO) on items that come in contact with food. BLO is linseed oil that has drying agents added to it. Item 3 in http://www.kleanstrip.com/uploads/do...d_Oil_MSDS.pdf for example.

Claude