Thread: Finish for bowls and chopping boards

FoodSafe Plus

I haven't used it on any chopping boards yet but Gilly Stephenson's Orange Oil is supposedly fine for it-

Gilly Stephenson's Waxes & Polishes - Orange Oil

Yes, this is a recurrent question here. The answer depends to some extent what "look" you want. There are a number of oils recommended and one frequent participant here (Robson Valley from memory) recommends baking it into the wood in an oven (I'll let you search the threads for his recipe).

If you want a glossy or somewhat glossy food safe finish I believe that you can't do better than UBeaut Hard Shellac.

This is what it looks like on a Northern Silky Oak carved platter. In this case I stopped at a semi-gloss level as that is what SWMBO required. However, a few more coats would have achieved wet-look gloss level.

Northern Silky Oak platter and spatula with Hard Shellac.JPG

I am after a natural to semi gloss look instead of a high gloss which I think may look a bit too plastic.

I have not long ago attended a hands on with Richard Raffin and he advocates an oil with a light coat of bees wax and but to a suitable finish. I have been using grape seed oil which is available in the supermarket as a salad oil. It gives a very functional finish that is easy to refurbish with another coating of oil when it gets a bit dull. I normally only sand to 240 or 320 but a higher gloss would obviously result from a finer finish.

Steve

Obviously not a chopping board but this was a test of the Orange Oil, can be buffed for more of a shine.