Salad bowl finishes

Incomplete oxidation is what makes the rancid smell. People who stack bowl inside of bowl, reducing the availability of oxygen are going to run into problems. The oil itself can also cause rancid odors if it's very thick, and the surface keeps the interior oil from oxidizing. Free circulation - no rancid.

No matter what finish you put on, unless the customer wipes with detergent to emulsify and clear away the surface oil after use, it will eventually build. Walnut oil is a great choice, because it does cross-link and cure, but, without siccatives, it takes a while, and if you deny oxygen, it'll smell rancid. Look at the bottle and you will see that you want to refrigerate after opening. This is to slow the chemical process as you provide more and more oxygen.

Lots of people like mineral oil, but it has its dark side as well. As it never cures, it's subject to weeping in the sun, collecting dirt, and sheltering bacterial spores and the bacteria themselves in a lipid-friendly environment. What kills bacteria is the destruction of the cell wall by detergent action. Of course, the same action emulsifies the mineral oil, so you can't be really clean unless the "finish" is gone.

As to your mix, you've rediscovered cold cream, plus or minus a few odorants and alcohols.

Maybe the finish on a salad bowl matters while selling it, but most salads will be dressed with everything from anchovy to blue cheese plus a garlic rub and (_extra virgin) olive oil. Salad bowls that are used will end up with a 'salad dressing finish' regardless.

Sprinkling salt into the soiled bowl and rubbing out with kitchen paper, the way pre-teflon chef's skillets were cleaned, is one way to clean and avoid a gummy, rancid oil finish. Hand washing with soapy water, another. Rinse well & dry right away.

If only greens or fruit are put in the bowl, no finish is needed. A salad bowl ought to smell like salad anyway, otherwise let them settle for ceramic and you turn bottle stoppers :). You might make a positive point by suggesting that you leave the bowl unfinished (well maybe a little mineral oil & wax for looks) so the buyer can customise with a favorite dressing.

You might want to have bottles of various dressings, salt and kitchen paper for them to finish and season their treasures on site when purchased. Maybe not, but at least, you would draw a crowd of sniffers!

Sorry, I got carried away. I do love to build and consume a good salad. I'll discuss the unfortunate bastardizations of a proper martini another time. Thanks for not bringing up the question of food safe finishes :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

How about everclear or highest octane potable alcohol available to clean the wood down to bare and then re-oiling? I like walnut oil personally...

Alcohol, a polar solvent, doesn't work too well against oil, a non-polar compound.

Now as a cough medicine, Everclear's pretty good with tea, honey and lemon....

So I should leave the lid off of the olive oil?

bad for the bowl... OTOH, after a couple of shots of everclear, you won't care what the bowl smells like (or know)

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

I do have a personal sized ash bowl that I take to all of the shows I do. It is 5 years old. I use it to show how a bowl can age, for product testing, and because when I take it to a food booth and ask for a fill up, they seem to give me larger portions. I've had ice cream, stirfry, bar-b-que, pasta, pizza, Mexican, tofu, fries, cakes, cajun, and anything else I can fit in it. It started out snow white, and now is a beautiful amber. All I have done thus far for maintenance is to wash in out with water, and dry it. No soap thus far. I haven't noticed any oil build up. The outside of the bowl is a little dry, but the inside is fine. Cheese cake leaves the most beautiful sheen on the bowl when I'm done. robo hippy

Arch wrote:

positive

sniffers!

If you are concerned with the wood absorbing the contents of a salad, the oils or other potentially foul smelling stuff, then why not make the wood impervious to having stuff penetrate into the wood? I use Waterlox - about

Just flood on 1 coat, wipe off excess - let stand for about 15 minutes, then wipe another liberal coat intot he wood. Come back the next day, lightly sand at 400 grit by hand and apply another coat let stand for about 2 days. Then hit it again with steel wool then another coat using a paper towel to push the Waterlox into the pores and cover the surface with a thin layer and Tada! A beautifully finished and will protected wooden bowl!

Ray Sandusky Brentwood, TN

I have never used Waterlox, or any other type of surface finish like spray lacquers. It seems like most of them will crack, chip and peel off eventually. Then to repair, you have to strip and refinish. I do use Deftoil, with urethane resins for some of my 'art' pieces which is the same finish I use on my furniture pieces. Easier to repair. I have heard that it is ok for utility pieces, but the public seems to prefer the walnut and mineral oil finishes. robo hippy

Ray Sandusky wrote:

minutes, then

Waterlox is not a surface finish. It's a penetrating oil finish. It won't crack, chip, or peel.

me

robo hippy wrote:

You can sort of fool folks if you use a couple coats of thinned varnish - Waterlox being one. I use thinned Minwax polyurethane, two coats, which gives pretty good rejection, and dull any areas of the surface where I might have dense enough grain to get some surface sheen. Would not recommend it for popcorn bowls, though, as you can still get some blistering effect from the Old Maids.

If you're in California, where more substances are know to cause cancer, you might get queasy about the aromatic hydrocarbons, and if a heavy metal phobic, there's cobalt siccatives....

Waterlox sounds interesting, I'll have to try it. robo hippy

George wrote:

recommend it