Wood Finish 2. Oil.

Which wood finish to chose is the most difficult aspect of wood turning, in my opinion. Oil, however, is the natural choice for a food safe wood finish.

But which oil? Robin Wood, an experienced wood turner I would instinctively trust, is totally in favour of Linseed oil (Flaxseed oil) which can be bought for culinary use. However, other people say that it isn’t an ideal wood finish. I used it on the inside of a corner cupboard I made years ago and the smell lingered for years. I definitely wouldn’t use it for within an enclosed space again. Some say Jojoba is ideal as it is actually a liquid polish but seems to be prohibitively expensive in Britain. Walnut, Safflower, Soybean are all suitable and used as they are drying oils which means that they will chemically change and dry. Olive oil on the other hand isn’t a drying oil so too much might mean it would remain a little ‘tacky’. Tung oil, the extracted oil from the seed of a nut from China, has been used in China for centuries, if not thousands of years, for finishing wood. The two main disadvantages of it are that since it comes from a nut it is not suitable for people with nut allergies (one of the main arguments Robin Wood uses in favour of linseed oil is that it doesn’t have that disadvantage) and that it is not local. It is however the oil of choice for me at present. The product I use states “Pure Tung oil, with no added driers, is a natural, non-toxic product which can be used on toys and objects in contact with food such as salad bowls etc.”

When I was researching into the advantages and disadvantages of the different oils as a wood finish I was surprised at what people were recommending. The one I found most shocking was on a wood turners site. He said he finished his bowls with a food safe boiled linseed oil and for after care of his bowl he recommended that you “lightly oil it with boiled linseed oil (the oil is available at your local hardware store…)” Boiled linseed oil isn’t boiled but chemicals are forced into the oil (the process creates bubbles so looks like it is boiling) and I had always understood that this definitely made it non food safe.