Food safe oil finish to a nice sheen

[David J. Ross]

Hi folks
I am in the process of making a few salad and fruit bowls, I have sanded and oiled with Chestnut food safe oil upto 800grit.
Going to put on oil upto 1500grit.
Question I have is how do I take the finish upto a nice sheen when I have finished putting on oil?
The oil has been left for 24hours between each application.
Thanks David

[GBF]

You probably wont with the food safe oil.I think it will always be a bit flat.

Regards george

[bodrighywood]

Best you are likely to achieve is a satin finish.This will disapear with use anyway. Salad bowls you need a food safe finish, fruit bowls you can safely use other finishes.

Pete

[Paul Hannaby]

It's one of those situations where you are caught between a rock and a hard place! If you sand too fine, the wood has more of a sheen but will absorb  less oil, meaning it will dull faster in use and will need re-oiling sooner. Sanding less fine will allow more oil to be absorbed but will have less of a sheen so you have to compromise.
There are other "food safe" finishes which will give more of a shine so it's worth experimenting to see which you prefer.

[Mark Sanger]

I appreciate you have used the Chestnut food safe finish which as has already been discussed is very difficult to get a finish if at all.

 The method I used to obtain a satin sheen was to oil, let it settle for a few days and then buff which gave a nice finish.

However for my food safe bowls I changed over to Rustins Danish oil which is currently the only Danish oil on the market with a food safe certificate.

The benifit of using this danish oil is that it hardens as it dries somthing liquid parafin doesn't do thus allowing it to be buffed to a high shine depending on the amount of cots that are applied and buffed.

so you can buff the Chestnut oil but in effect you are buffing the wood to a sheen but it works wel, danish oil hardens and can be buffed to a much higher sheen.

hope that helps.

[MCB]

Best you are likely to achieve is a satin finish.This will disapear with use anyway. Salad bowls you need a food safe finish, fruit bowls you can safely use other finishes.

Pete

How can the maker predict what the bowl will contain in use?

He may think it will be a Fruit Bowl but the purchaser may decide to put salad - or porridge - in it.

MC

[bodrighywood]

Fair point but if you sell it as a fruit bowl then if the purchaser decides to use it for something else that is surely his problem. As an extreme example if you buy engine oil and use it to cook with instead of cooking oil who's to blame? Or perhaps we should go to the extreme of having labels like the one on bags of nuts saying 'may contain nuts'

Pete

[andersonec]

Keep applying in very thin coats and it will eventually build. Wipe on a thin coat then wipe off again, you are trying to apply just a dampened coat, let dry and do it again, keep applying until it builds into a sheen then sand and apply one final coat in a dust free environment.

Andy

[David J. Ross]

Thanks very much for all the replies it helped a lot

David

[ALAN THOMAS RPT]

Hi David
If a shine is what you want I agree with Mark about Danish oil but I have to point out that Danish oil is only foodsafe after a minimum of 7 days. This is because the oil contains metallic driers which aid the drying process and these have to evaporate off. Personally I use a blend of oil and wax from firm called Brandon Bespoke and have found it to be an excellent product and will give a nice satin sheen if buffed the day after application.
I'm with Richard Raffan about sanding items that are for food use and rarely go beyond 240 grit, after all they are going to get scratched and washed so what is the point of extra fine finishing?  

[Mark Sanger]

about Danish oil but I have to point out that Danish oil is only foodsafe after a minimum of 7 days. This is because the oil contains metallic driers which aid the drying process and these

learn something every day, certainly don;t tell you that on the tin. Perhaps Rustins is a different formula. !?

[Mark Hancock]

learn something every day, certainly don;t tell you that on the tin. Perhaps Rustins is a different formula. !?

The term Danish Oil doesn't imply any particular formula. Learnt that at my cost many years ago when I bought 5 litres of Bollom's Danish Oil. Only use I've found for it is the garden furniture

[Mark Sanger]

learn something every day, certainly don;t tell you that on the tin. Perhaps Rustins is a different formula. !?

The term Danish Oil doesn't imply any particular formula. Learnt that at my cost many years ago when I bought 5 litres of Bollom's Danish Oil. Only use I've found for it is the garden furniture

Thanks Mark, I place faith in the labeling system and if it says food safe I follow the instructions and take it as such. Thanks for the info.

[Mark Hancock]

learn something every day, certainly don;t tell you that on the tin. Perhaps Rustins is a different formula. !?

The term Danish Oil doesn't imply any particular formula. Learnt that at my cost many years ago when I bought 5 litres of Bollom's Danish Oil. Only use I've found for it is the garden furniture

Thanks Mark, I place faith in the labeling system and if it says food safe I follow the instructions and take it as such. Thanks for the info.

No problem. With you on the Rustin's Danish Oil. Haven't found a better product in 25 years and still no customer complaints to date