cutlery handles

[John Crum]

Hi folks. My daughter sent me some steak knife cutlery from Craft products. Turning the handles is pretty straight forward but I'm not sure how to finish them. I would imagine the finish should be water proof. Suggestions, please. Thanks, John

[Steve Schlumpf]

John - I have not turned anything like what you are describing - so my suggestion is based on opinion, not experience. I would think you would want to use something like Mahoney's Walnut Oil for a finish. Food safe but more importantly it is an oil base and can soak into the wood to protect it. I have not had any luck finding any type surface coatings that are water proof and would hate to have something that would eventually chip and flake off.

So, some type of an oil based finish should work well. Hope that helps!

[Jeff Nicol]

WIth anything that is used and handled in the kitchen and will see the water and grease of cooking and eating, the best finish is hard to come up with. If you never put them in the dishwasher and hand wash them, like Steve said a good penetrating oil finish that will polymerize from the inside out will work well and can be reapplied when the finish has dulled. Some of the very oily woods that have natural water resisting qualities may also help the cause. The polyurethane's will work well and stay for a while, but will flake off eventually. So sand them as smooth as you can seal them up with a thinned down shellac sanding sealer and soak them in your favorite oil finish and let them dry completly and go from there.

Good luck and have fun!

Happy Thanksgiving,

Jeff

[Jarrod McGehee]

mineral oil flooded on the wood, let it dry and burnish it with some beeswax or caranuba wax? that's what I do with my cutting boards and seems to work. Good luck. Jeff and Steve are masters though so you could take their advise also because they know what they're talking about. I have some of the Mahoney Oil but haven't used it yet.

[John Crum]

Thanks fellas. I appreciate all the good advice. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. John

[Bernie Weishapl]

John I soak mine in Mahoney's walnut oil. Sunlight and can be indirect will cure them. Every couple of years I soak them again, wipe off the excess after soaking 15 minutes or so and you are good to go. The ones I made are used almost everyday.