Nut Oils

Linseed doesn't, but so long as it isn't /over/ oiled it's not a problem. I can't say I've had any problems using it on cricket bats, anyway. ;]

I'm not sure whether /any/ of the pure oils actually cure & harden, I think it's more likely a case of their soaking into the wood far enough that they provide protection while not actually flowing back out from oversaturation. Treated oils or oil mixtures might though, but I wouldn't consider them to be "natural oils," which is what I think you're asking about?

I guess we'll soon hear more from someone who knows better... or thinks they do, anyway. ;]

Try Walnut oil. It is not toxic and won't turn bad on you. It also dries. Mike Mahoney sells the oil and it is available at Craft Supplies. I've also used the Walnut oil available in the market and it seems to work well too.

Bob Ivey

Northwest Woodturners

Or someone more observant, anyway. Pays to be careful.

Start with general chemistry Continue with a list Of course, artists and common language uses the term "drying" rather than cross-linking Good information on varnishes and their constituent oils on

=======>This has been a topic in the past. The thing that is missing in the above discussion is the question of nut allergies that can kill! Turners who use nut oils identify their bowls or dishes as being finished with nut oils. Anaphylaxis can be deadly!

Leif

I doubt that you will ever get a consenses on the safty of nut oils. I use salad bowl oil because I have no idea where a bowl or platter may end up.If you do use walnut oil at least mark finish on bottom.

A short answer to a complex question.... . An oil finish "cures" by the polymerization (cross-linking) of the smaller liquid molecules to form the larger solid molecules of the finish. As a general rule, nut oils can cure, seed oils don't, BUT.... it is a more complicated than that.

Cooking Oils are "seed oils" and they generally turn rancid rather than cure. Some of them can be forced to cure with the addition of drying agents, metallic salts that provide the oxygeb required for the curing reaction. Most of the commercial finishes use Soybean Oil, which doesn't cure in its natural form, but have drying agents added so that it will.

Linseed Oil is different from most "seed oils" in that in its raw form, it will cure on the surface only, but that seals the uncured oil under it from the oxygen in the air. The result is usually a gummy mess with a skin over it. Boiled Linseed Oil has drying agents added to provide the oxygen so the oil under the surface will also cure.

What is missing from the discussion of "nut oils" is how the oil is extracted from the nut. It can be either pressed or distilled, and therein lies a difference. Pressed oil contains all of the proteins from the nut. These proteins are the source of the allergies, and they also prevent the oil from "curing". Distilled oils leave the proteins behind in the process, there are no allergies because there are no proteins, and the oil will "cure". The Walnut Oil in the grocery store is usually pressed because it is sold as a salad oil, and they last thing they want is for the oil to "cure" in the bottle. The Walnut Oil sold as a finish in the art stores and by Mike Mahoney has been distilled, so it will cure, and it has a shelf-life. Distilled Walnut Oil does not make a good salad oil because the flavors have been left behind with the proteins.

That should be sufficient to confuse.

Russ Fairfield http:

The Oprahization of society!

Less than 1% of the population is in some way allergic to tree nuts. Of those, perhaps 1% might suffer anaphylaxis, the rest having some milder form of reaction. Of course, as Russ has noted, this is a reaction to the proteins, not the oil. Even cold-pressed oil contains vanishingly small amounts of protein - it does cure. Solvent-extracted oil leaves the polar compounds behind altogether.

Much higher incidence of reaction to milk, eggs, seafood, and wheat. Not to mention that bumble-bee out on the lawn....

Thanks for the links, there's some interesting info in there. :)

BTW, I still don't believe natural linseed oil (ie. cold-pressed & also suitable for human consumption) "cures & hardens." I meant "natural" when I said "pure" though, that was a poor choice of words. FWIW, I prefer cold-pressed on my cricket bats even though 'tis way more expensive as there's a noticable difference to when I used BLO. That's from direct experience and long-term observation. Pays to be careful.

The linseed oils used as drying oils (BLO, hot-pressed &/or solvent extracted) are oxidised/polymerised during extraction which, as you obviously know, changes their properties. They're /treated/, not natural, that is why I made that distinction in my reply. Most of the links you posted refer to linseed as a drying oil, probably meaning BLO. Regardless of common usage, BLO is /not/ linseed oil; it's BOILED Linseed Oil. [shrug]

I've yet to be convinced that the same doesn't hold true for most other natural seed oils, either. Because cold-pressing is a relatively inefficient, thus expensive, method I can't afford to buy the natural versions of the more common treated oils I use and can't make a direct comparison. Until then, I'll happily sit on the fence.

- Andy

You mistake convenience for reality. The cross-linking does take place in the raw oil as well, just not at a rate that we care to wait on. Heat - the "boiled" in BLO, merely speeds the chemical reaction. Siccatives are testimony to further impatience.

SNIP..........

===========================

This is probably true! But If that 1% of 1% buys a bowl or platter from you that's finished with some chemical (natural or refined) that causes a reaction, you can bet the farm (and probably your work shop) that their lawyer will make your life miserable for a long time! Makes you want to go back to less litigeous (sp?) times when people could get along better.

Ken Moon Webbervile, TX.

Those great old times when we feared bacteria and viruses and what they could do to us versus such fluff as how to change the world to accommodate the one in 100,000? They're good because they're gone, but it is well analyze the situation and determine if it might be some nut that got us rather than a piece of the sky....

As an additional piece of information, even the AAAAI says sensitive people ingesting nut oils doesn't made a difference.

"Is the wood and finish safe for food??"

This is the most often asked question by the woodturner, but the least asked question by the customer.

Customers are smarter than we give them credit for being. They will let their nose tell them the difference. If a bowl has an odor that is offensive, they won't buy it. The corollary is that a bowl with a pleasant or appetizing odor is an easy sale.

Any remaining odors of thinners or stinking wood will kill a sale immediately. Our saying that that it is safe to use and that the odor will disappear with time won't rescue it.

I wrote an article that describes the attributes of a good salad bowl at

Russ Fairfield

If she wants to ruin the bowl, then she can use Almond Oil on it! My wife made that mistake on a beautiful Ash bowl - it formed a thick gummy mess ont he surface and was never able to be salvaged!

Ray

So if one uses baby oil instead of mineral oil does it trigger the maternal senses and sell to the wimin folk?

Pounding the pulpit in news:42e0ee69 snipped-for-privacy@newspeer2.tds.net, George did expound thusly:

Hmmm... I'll accept that. A bit like Danish and Tung...

I might actually try that. Many a true word spoken in jest...

John

What is in salad bowl oil? Squeezed salad bowls?

Bjarte

"Bjarte Runderheim" wrote in news:Y2AEe.3316 $ snipped-for-privacy@juliett.dax.net:

I had the same question. Hank

Tung-based varnish if you're talking the Behlen's product.

Then there's baby oil....