what finish to use on bucherblock

[anthony wall]

ok so you may know that i now live in thailand 'the land of smiles' well the only time that i smile is when i see that phrase. the place is a nightmare for woodworkers, amongst the numerous tools that are impossible to find i now discover that i cannot buy tung oil -mineral oil and as my next project is building a bucher block top general kitchen work table i am stumped for a finish to use as it will obviously involve contact with foodstuffs, can anyone help?.maybe another product that is based on mineral oil but none woodwork related or any other foodsafe finish, i have considered vegetable oil but dont know if this is a good alternative i am hopeing someone can tell me .thailand really is a very frustrating place to live for a woodworker !!!!!!!!!! it isn't all bad though and has many redeeming qualities

[Todd Burch]

Have you gone to the pharmacy to look for mineral oil that is sold a as laxative? Same stuff. Or the grocery store salad dressing isle to look for it? Same stuff.

[Ted Calver]

Vegetable oil will turn rancid in no time. Mineral oil might be your best bet. I'd mix it with beeswax.

[Jamie Buxton]

Do you plan to be cutting food directly on this table? If not, you can use a film-forming finish like varnish. Varnish protects the wood from stains much better than oil. If you're going to be using the table as a cutting board, a film finish will eventually get all cut up, and it will look bad. So folks use oils like mineral oil on cutting boards. They don't provide much protection. Vegetables like beets will stain the cutting board, and water will raise the grain. But that's the life of a cutting board.

[anthony wall]

thanks tod that is the answer that i was looking for so it's off to the supermarket today

[anthony wall]

hi ted ,i sort of guessed that would be the problem with vegetable oil,the beeswax i have looked for before and the only beeswax i could find was the actual wax cone sold on the markets occasionaly from wild hives and as i type this i have thought of another place to look for beeswax ,thanks

[anthony wall]

unfortunately jamie the plan is to use it for cutting and preparing food so varnish is out

[Ted Calver]

Have you tried Lemon Farm for bees wax candles?

http://www.lemonfarm.com/lmf/

[Steve Friedman]

Not sure if it's available, but walnut oil is used by bowl makers all the time. Food safe and doesn't turn rancid. Actually smells nice.
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=20056&cat=1,190,42942
http://www.woodcraft.com/Family/2005223/2005223.aspx

If it's not available, I wonder if other nut oils might have similar properties.

Steve

[anthony wall]

i can get peanut oil very easily but aren't sure it will work,maybe it's worth a try as the supermarkets don't seem to have the mineral oil salad dressing but not tried the pharmacy for the laxative yet

[anthony wall]

hi ted there is a massive shop in pattya that sells all bee related products only a couple of miles from our holiday home so it's looking like a week at the beach for us