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Wooden Bowls and seasoning

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A nice old guy at the farmers market turns Local wood, wooden bowls and I bought 2 for the wife & one small for my pack. I got a little lost as to which bowl was what wood :redface: Spruce maybe?

Anyway the bowls were unseasoned, I have been coating with food grade mineral oil as if oiling a stock (light coats with ever increasing intervals between). After 4 days I think I have a dozen coats in. Anyone have experience with seasoning wooden bowls? Guess I'm a bit unsure how far to go. It's not as if they were teak, I think I paid $32 for the 3.
 
Just ask the maker, I'd bet he knows. Spruce???? I doubt it, but good luck.
 
I've always used the same stuff, food grade mineral oil.

I bought a wooden spoon once that had been seasoned with olive oil. Put it away for use the next spring. Mice got in and liked to nibble on it so I tossed it..., no idea if it was because of the olive oil as I didn't have anything with mineral oil where the mice were for them to leave alone. Maybe they would've liked the wood regardless of the oil, maybe not?

:idunno:

LD
 
Loyalist Dave said:
I've always used the same stuff, food grade mineral oil.

I bought a wooden spoon once that had been seasoned with olive oil. Put it away for use the next spring. Mice got in and liked to nibble on it so I tossed it..., no idea if it was because of the olive oil as I didn't have anything with mineral oil where the mice were for them to leave alone. Maybe they would've liked the wood regardless of the oil, maybe not?

:idunno:

LD

Need cat! :rotf:
 
I'd say they're where they need to be.
The key is drying well after washing,, leave'm out in the sun or at least exposed to a breeze till they dry whenever possible.
The wood will tell ya when it want's more oil,, you'll know.
 
Depends on your planned use. If oiled, do not ever put anything hot into the bowl. I grew up with the family using wood bowls for salads. The seasoning was always olive oil and vinegar. Afterwards they were wiped, never washed, with olive oil and put away for the next use. I use a wooden nogging for rondevouz that is not seasoned at all. It get a variety of uses from coffee to adult beverages. If seasoned the oil float and make the brew taste awful.
 
I do the contrary - vegetable oil for hot and beeswax for cold liquids. My wooden spoons and noggings are oiled while my gourds are finished with beeswax.
 
woodturners predominantly use either friction polish or salad bowl finish. Friction polish is equal parts shellac, denatured alcohol and boiled linseed oil. It is applied with a rag to the unfinished wood, while spinning on the lathe and heat created by pressure of the rag on the wood causes the mixture to heat, evaporating the alcohol, drying the BLO and shellac, leaving a nice luster on the wood. Salad bowl finish is a commercial liquid that leaves a food safe varnish type finish on the wood and is available from many paint and specialty wood working stores. (even Walmart) In my opinion, there is nothing more disgusting than using an unfinished wood cup and getting the flavor of past liquids bleeding out into the current contents. For instance hot cocoa from breakfast bleeding into your beer in the evening.

I developed an interest in treen ware and started turning some things out myself on a lathe. Also want to try hewing out some bowls with an adz and gouges.
 
Bought an 8 qt. porcelain enameled cast iron Dutch oven and using metal utensils is out, so made a large spatula type stirring stick out of sugar maple and used beeswax for a finish.
Heated the wood w/ a heat gun and applied the beeswax until it wouldn't absorb further.

Just made a paella and this utensil worked like a charm to stir the pot. Clean up was easy and the beeswax prevented any absorption.

Previously used mineral oil, but now think bees wax is better......Fred
 
my opinion, there is nothing more disgusting than using an unfinished wood cup and getting the flavor of past liquids bleeding out into the current contents. For instance hot cocoa from breakfast bleeding into your beer in the evening.

Never experienced that.
 
A nice old guy at the farmers market turns Local wood, wooden bowls and I bought 2 for the wife & one small for my pack. I got a little lost as to which bowl was what wood :redface: Spruce maybe?

Anyway the bowls were unseasoned, I have been coating with food grade mineral oil as if oiling a stock (light coats with ever increasing intervals between). After 4 days I think I have a dozen coats in. Anyone have experience with seasoning wooden bowls? Guess I'm a bit unsure how far to go. It's not as if they were teak, I think I paid $32 for the 3.
I TURN WOODEN BOWLS ALL THE TIME ON WOOD LATHE AND PUT TWO COATS OF WALNUT OIL ON THEM. IF THE WOOD IS NOT DRIED PUT THEM IN PAPER BAG AND CLOSE IT UP TIGHT AND LET THEM DRY,AND HOPE THEY DONT CRACK. LANEY
 
A nice old guy at the farmers market turns Local wood, wooden bowls and I bought 2 for the wife & one small for my pack. I got a little lost as to which bowl was what wood :redface: Spruce maybe?

Anyway the bowls were unseasoned, I have been coating with food grade mineral oil as if oiling a stock (light coats with ever increasing intervals between). After 4 days I think I have a dozen coats in. Anyone have experience with seasoning wooden bowls? Guess I'm a bit unsure how far to go. It's not as if they were teak, I think I paid $32 for the 3.

I've made a lot of woodenware, and would recommend using flax oil. This is the same thing as linseed oil, but for food it's typically referred to as flax. Walnut oil is also a hardening oil, though anyone with a nut allergy should obviously avoid it.

The USDA approved (just like bisphenol A and a whole host of other "food grade" nasties!) food grade mineral oil isn't a good idea imho, for two reasons. First is that it remains liquid, and thus washes out and/or evaporates relatively quickly. Second is that as a petroleum derivative, I don't trust it. You'll find plenty on-line to scare you from using it if you look around.

I've heard some suggestions that olive oil will also polymerize, but my own experience with it was that it turned rancid smelling before polymerizing, so I don't use it.

The best way to treat with walnut or flax oil (make sure either is sold for food use; boiled linseed (aka flax) oil contains chemical drying agents you don't want in your food!) is to first make sure your bowl is *DRY* -- like sitting next to the wood stove for a month or so. If it's not dry, you risk cracking in the next step. Next, have enough oil on hand to immerse it, at least halfway. Heat some oil up on the stove. It's flammable, and can burn inside the pot, so be gentle with it, and don't leave it unattended. Once the oil is hot enough (above boiling temp), put your bowls in. Bubbles from air and moisture in the wood (even a dry bowl still has some moisture content) will start escaping from the end grain of the wood so long as the oil is hot enough. Eventually they'll stop, and your bowl will likely sink to the bottom. At this point, take your oil off the heat and leave the bowl inside as it cools. This will draw the oil deep into the wood grain. Turn the bowl every so often if it's not completely submerged, to ensure that no surface goes dry and cools without drawing in the oil.

Finally... find a nice sunny window, and let the bowls sit there for a few months. UV light and heat will speed the polymerization of the oil as it hardens. Sitting on a shelf above a woodstove also works pretty well. Once you can rub it with a piece of white paper and not get any oil on it, you're ready for use. This treatment will last far longer than the mineral oil option, though it will still need occasional renewal. My "daily use" bowl starts to show signs of drying after about 1-2 years of use.

You can of course skip the drying period if you're dying to use the bowl before the oil is cured, but you'll get a little oil in your food, and anything hot will cause oil to seep from the pores of the wood. But, unlike mineral oil, flax and walnut oils are actually really good for you!
 
The USDA approved (just like bisphenol A and a whole host of other "food grade" nasties!) food grade mineral oil isn't a good idea imho, for two reasons. First is that it remains liquid, and thus washes out and/or evaporates relatively quickly. Second is that as a petroleum derivative, I don't trust it. You'll find plenty on-line to scare you from using it if you look around.
Believing pseudo-scientific information found online is much like believing in fairy-tales - until you can actually confirm the information, it is meaningless. There may be a microscopic grain of truth at the core, but the rest is histrionics and imagination. You may not like petroleum products, but the reality is they are no more or less dangerous than natural products - ultimately, there is more regulation and testing for manufactured products than many of the natural products you appear to trust implicitly, especially for products that will be consumed or used in medicines.
 
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