A funny story

For the Jewish new year, I made my family some custom honey dippers (cut me some slack, I'm just starting with this turning thing). It was a really nice present - especially when everyone understood I made them myself... Anyway, one of the recipients was my wife's mother, which of course put it to good use during the holiday (one of the rituals is to dip the bread in honey as a blessing for a sweet new year). After wards of course, she had to wash it.... Now, she doesn't own a dish-washer, however, her dishwashing is a rigouros test for wooden objects - she scrubs like there is no tommorow

- and uses some serious soap. Every finish I did got washed off, including some serious raising of grain.

As for food safe finish, I used Olive Oil to finish the dippers, I like simple, and this is also food safe. So a little sanding (off lathe) and another helping of Oil did it, until the next time.

This is rapidly taking over as the biggest urban myth in woodworking (next to exploding dust collection systems).

Virtually any finish except lead paint is "food safe" once it's cured. In fact, there may not even be any finishes that can make the claim "food safe" due to the exceedingly difficult FDA standards it would have to meet. But that a company elects not to incur the expense of testing and certification just to be able to make the claim doesn't mean that the finish isn't "food safe."

Don't take my word for it. Look it up. The three major finishing experts, Dresdner, Jewitt, and Flexner, all pretty much say the same thing: once a finish is fully cured you have little to fear from it.

See the article "Which Finishes are Food Safe?" in the April, 1998, Fine Woodworking.

I once posted about the time I used my belt as a strap wrench to hold a blank for drilling and my pants dropped down. I often wear no underwear in summer and I turn in a garage that's open to the street! Hi LRod, Are you trying to destroy RCW ? Without the lengthy threads of our expert's heated arguments about the urban myths of woodturning, the ng would dry up ....and that's no myth. :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

Snip................

Couldn't agree more Lrod. Some woodturners are continuously worrying about "foodsafe" finishes when half the damn food we buy isn't "foodsafe".................... I'd be more concerned about putting something sold in a McDonalds in my mouth than I would eating off a wooden plate.

"Arch" wrote: I once posted about the time I used my belt as a strap wrench to hold a blank for drilling and my pants dropped down.(clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Arch, if you ever decide to do this while welding, I strongly suggest you wear leather underwear. For reasons that will be *painfully* clear if you forget.

Well once again, if the individual in question is a devotee of talk-show science, there's no hope of convincing them. Kansas is not a fluke; we really do consider supposition on a par with science.

Depending on whether or not their position coincides with yours, you may enjoy or deplore the bureaucrats who produced :

Blot that image out, Chuck. It's not food safe.

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

Hi Alun

I had something like that, though not as severe I think. Friend of mine bought 2 salad/fruit bowls for his daughters wedding, then about 3 years later he comes over one day, brings me some nice yellow birch burl he had cut off and one of the bowls that he had bought, and the question can you fix this up ?? As the story went, daughter and SIL had gone to a wedding and brought back a bouquet of flowers and MIL who was baby sitting their little son had set the flowers in the bowl with a generous amount of water, which was discovered only days later, sure did a job to the looks of the bowl. The bowl, made from burr oak, was not cracked or warped, only the color had aged as I will call it So I put it on my lathe on the vacuum chuck, sanded it down a bid, then polished it, and applied my oil finish on it again. Told my friend that next time I would not fix it and keep the bowl.

Moral of the story, a well made bowl can stand a lot of abuse and a oil finish can be applied again and again, not so easily with a damaged lacquer, urethane etc. finish. Olive oil, sunflower oil and tung oil are three finishes that are safe and good finishes for turnings used with food.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Alun wrote:

Totally in agreement with that LRod

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

LRod wrote:

Hi Arch

Drying up?? no chance, just don't you go away ye hear

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Arch wrote:

Hi Leo

Would that be Sunburn or spotburn ?? Also keep your pantleggs over your shoes unless you want to do a dancing shoes demo.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Leo Lichtman wrote:

LoL!! TOO right!

Hey thanks, Arch. Now _there's_ an image we all wanted to take to the Thanksgiving table with us!!

MY EYES! MY EYES!

I once lived in a house on a corner lot with a four way stop. I was up one of my trees - visible to both streets - doing some vigorous pruning when my pants dropped. I Was wearing shorts, but it took a while to get my pants up and not fall out of the tree while doing so.

STOP NOW YOU GUYS! WE DON'T CONDONE TORTURE HERE IN RCW!

;)

If the finish is water soluble or can be removed in the dishwasher then it can be removed at the dinner table. Even though walnut, sunflower, and olive oils are considered safe some people are allergic and the oil can be deadly. Curried finishes can still leach toxic materials. Before declaring a finish food safe you need to have a TCLP (Toxicity Characteristic leaching Procedure) performed to ensure the finish is safe. Heavy metals, not just lead, can be leached from many solids.

I agree that many finishes are safe when cured but I have seen the reselts from enough tests to know that they are not all safe. We need to be carefull when we use the turm Food Safe.

Okay George, you went and stole my thunder. I was just reading the thread all the way through before posting that link myself. Yowza ... we sure seem to cover this ground with astounding regularity! Bill

No.........but some people don't appreciate/understand/deserve quality hand crafted items. Some people absolutely amaze me........and not in a good way either! My sympathies. I include a "caution card" with everything I sell or give away warning that the item be kept out of direct sun light and away from other sources of heat and light. I caution that the piece is intended for display only or for dry ingredients like candies or nuts. There is also a caveat not to wash or soak...........wipe with a damp cloth only. If they run it through the dishwasher anyway, it's theirs!

Barry