Food Safe Finshes - Revisited

I’ll have to keep that in mind if I ever make anything to eat off of. Thanks

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Bob Flexner also wrote an article for the Spring 2008 issue of American Woodturner. He states the same things you mention. He goes on to say that the so-called Salad Bowl Finish is reported by the manufacturer as a marketing concept to sell more product. Any cured clear finish is food safe. The best test to check if the finish is cured is the sniff test. Put the piece to your nose and sniff. If it smells like paint thinner, it’s not fully cured yet. If you don’t smell the finish, then it is food safe. Bob suggests we choose a finish for food contact the same way we do for other wood objects: for water and scratch resistance, color, and ease of application.

Thanks for the post and helping educate fellow lumberjocks on this “food safe” myth.

-- Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit.

Jeff, I totally agree with you. I think this myth may have come about during the Lead scares of the 70’s. The only reasons I use walnut oil is that it is very easy to apply, I like the amber tone, and its easy to refresh the finish over time. When you use a thicker varnish, repair is more of a problem when a peice starts to show wear like on a cutting board that sees knife use.

-- Greg - Charles Town, WV

Hi Jeff,

You received no raised eyebrows from me. I agree with you. I have read Flexner’s book and followed some of his research. It looks like his facts are well grounded. This is definately a book to read. It really explodes a lot of myths that have been continued by woodworking magazines, institutions and woodworkers themselves.

In reality all chemicals, including water, are dangerous and can cause heath issues if exposure is great enough. But at some point you simply have to use common sense in dealing with any chemical exposure.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Good point, Greg. Mineral Oil (or Walnut as mentioned), does have some application and refresh pro’s. I’m new to gel varnish which was what I went with this time. I’ve used a wipe poly on I think all of the previous boards. I really like the gel varnish, but have not had a project around long enough to give a testimony of the wear and such. I especially liked the gel on Cherry. It looked less mottled or blotchy (whatever the term) than using a thinned variant. I suspect it would do the same for pine.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

Sorry guys, I’m going to have to hold my ground on this one.

This subject has a great deal of potential for getting way off topic so in avoidance of that I’ll try to keep this brief. I’ll just tell a quick story of why I distrust this type of information.

A couple years ago a friend started telling me about a cleansing routine he went through. It was supposed to flush the toxins out of your body. I went along with it simply because it sounded like a good thing to do. I had no idea what I was in for! I had absolutely no preconceived notions of what this would do. Well, to make a very long story short, at the time I was on 4 prescriptions + 2-3 over the counter remedies. Within a month I was feeling substantially better. Within 3 months I was off ALL meds and feeling great. Other ailments which I either hadn’t bothered to see the doctor about, or the doctor said there’s nothing they can do, were also gone.

So, where did I get this “toxic burden” as it’s called? Did I work in a chemical plant? Did I play in piles of unknown white powder as a child? No. I ate FDA approved food stuffs and used FDA approved products, just like everybody else. That’s all.

Around the same time all this was happening, I closed my handyman business (5 workers, 1 office manager and me as the world’s worst manager – you do the math). This meant I had nothing to do for a while. I’m the type that when something happens, I have to know why. So I spent the next 8 months, 10 – 12 hours/day, 5 days/week, doing nothing, and I mean nothing but study and research as to why all this happened. What I found was astounding and shocking. And to try to get back on topic, what I found includes how studies like you mention are conducted and the reliability of their results. In a nutshell, if it’s man made, it does far more damage to your body, and the environment, that these people would have you believe.

I would be happy to discuss this further with anyone, but not here. This is a wood working site, not a soap box for radical hippies like me. We will have to discuss it off line, or if there is enough interest, I’ll set up a forum on one of my sites for this purpose.

-- Michael R. Harvey - Brewster, NY - RusticElementArt.com - SpaceAware.org

I use salad bowl finish on all my spoons and spatulas. The first time I ever opened the can I smelled polyeurathane. That’s basically what it is. The consistancy is a little different, and the driers may be a little different. The can says that it is safe in 3 days. The smell is gone usually within 2 to 5 days depending on the weather.

-- Joey, Magee, Ms http://woodnwaresms.com

Can’t argue with going the natural route. It is safe according to my limited knowledge. Joey is correct in that salald bowl’s composition is in the varnish family. If the 3 day claim is valid, that is a plus over a lot of other varnishes. I’ve noticed that wipe-on poly’s will carry their odor for a week or so. I tend to wait a while longer so as to be sure.

Michael is not alone in saying that the FDA is not all knowing. I think that it would be ignorant to claim they are. Science evolves and our knowledge does as well. What’s “safe” now, might be proved to be unsafe down the road as we learn more. This being the case, I wouldn’t blame any woodworker for taking the safest route. I would think the mineral/baby oil family would be safest as it has been around (and thus studied) much longer than some manufactured products.

Off-topic . . . Natural products can be very dangerous. In one regard, natural remedies are studied less, so there is less known. Add the fact that a lot can be obtained without prescription, it is a bit scary for me. I’ll leave that to the more chemistry/biology based people. That’s not to say that manufactured medicine isn’t every bit as dangerous.

-- Jeff, South Carolina