Woodwork People

[*crikey*mate*]

If I make a wooden platter or a bowl, what do I do to it to seal it and polish it etc to make it look nice and shiny and be able to use it to serve food in/on?

Do I use Beeswax?

[imastawka]

 I found you a 'handy' bowl - hope it's not too ambitious

 It's got crevices aplenty

         

*sings Adams Family theme*

[2106greencat]

I have one like this - a little smaller - it is bamboo and my favourite, a friend of mine made it.

[catsnknots]

Make sure that the timber you use is appropriate.. not all wood is good to eat off as it can taint the food. 

All the wooden boards we used at the restaurant I worked at were just treated with olive oil or vegetable oil as needed.... nothing more. The rule is to use an edible oil... everyone that has worked in a resturant should know that. 

The three boards I use I have not even treated and I wash them with soapy water and they are fine. 

[*crikey*mate*]

The only wood I've ever seen in a restaurant or commercial kitchen for cutting/chopping on is a butchers block. Only ever used the white and later the coloured plastic cutting boards. I believe they are the standard requirement for Health and Safety Regulations, at least that's was what I understood that every person who had ever worked in a restaurant should know - that you're not allowed to use wooden chopping boards. So, by complying with the health and Safety regulations, can't say I've ever had a need to know what to oil a wooden chopping board with.

With the butchers blocks we scrubbed them down at the end of the day with a hard wire brush and then hosed them off. No oil, ever.

[catsnknots]

In all the resturants I worked in they all had wooden boards for serving food at some point, usually a bread board or something like that. 

but even if you have never done that it would be common sense to use an edible oil wouldn't it? 

[*crikey*mate*]

Pretty sure I covered that in either the OP or the first few posts I made ie the concept of food safe.....

*scrolls back*

Yes, yes I did!

[j*oono]

But you said it was to serve food on Crikey.  Not a chopping board.  Where did chopping boards come into it? 

[*crikey*mate*]

OK, just had a look at the care instructions with my Royal Doulton, Gordon Ramsay wooden bowl.

It says, " This product is handcrafted from Acacia wood and finished with a food safe stain. To clean, hand wash with warm soapy water. Do not soak in water as this may cause warpage."

So what is a food safe stain? Is that what Lind was referring to?

There is no mention anywhere I can find for finishing off a raw wood product with an edible food oil.

Plus the thing that concerns me the most is that I know that oils go rancid, so wouldn't the olive oil go rancid after a while and make it smell? What stops the oil from going rancid? That's what I can't get my head around.

I don't want the "thing" to absorb food odours and stains of the food I put in it, I need it to be sealed so to speak, and I don't want the absorbed odours and flavours from any foods or the wood itself, being transferred to future foods either.

[j*oono]

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@*crikey*mate* wrote:

Yeah, I saw, but then I also researched what I had to do to it to use it, and it said to mix turps into it and some other stuff

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They would have been talking about mixing turps and Linseed oil but that is for preserving things like wooden skirting boards, not platters and bowls that you will be serving food on.

[j*oono]

I sent off one time for a little miniature huon pine cheese board when some cheese company was offering them.

It was untreated wood and it came with instructions to rub in some olive oil to help preserve it.