Finish for a tortilla "warmer"

[Brian Kent]

This is actually for keeping tortillas warm, not for heating them up.

It is soft, porous, dry avocado wood. I almost always use 2 coats of de-waxed shellac to start on avocado. On dishes I put several coats of de-waxed shellac until it has an even sheen. That is what I would like to do on this tortilla warmer.

By definition these will be filled with warm tortillas, humid air, and either oil or moisture on the tortillas depending on how they were heated up. Once the shellac is cured, do you see any problems in use. If this were a harder wood with closed pores, I would just leave it plain, but even with shellac this wood will breathe a little.

Another option is mineral oil, like a cutting board. I don't know how that would react to the quick heat and humidity changes.

Ideas?

[Prashun Patel]

Shellac doesn't cure btw. It can remelt ad infinitum with the right heat, moisture, or solvent.

[Ryan Mooney]

Interesting question, curious what others thing as well.

I suspect that dewaxed will work well for at least a while. My concern with it would be as it gets older the water resistance supposedly gets less and you may get white spots (usually you'd see this on say a coffee table where someone put their glass down without a coaster and you see a white ring). Mostly it seems that it would be more of a problem on the inside which may or may not be a real issue visually. I'd bet the outside would be fine for a really long time though.

As an other alternative; I used waterlox (original gloss) on some taster trays for a friends brewpub (pear wood which is moderately dense, three wiped on coats). They are constantly soaked in beer and washed in the hot wash water (with soap and bleach and ?some sort of sterilizer? maybe starsan not sure) and have survived over a year and still look good. I thought it was an interesting stress test :D

[Brian Kent]

Ryan, my Waterlox coated coffee table has survived for many years now with no defects. I had not thought about a completely non-permeable surface. Interesting idea.

I guess my intent is to use something that will allow for some breathing and moisture passage, without soaking in like a sponge in the desert.

Prashun, thank you for the info about shellac.

[Prashun Patel]

Ask on the Finisher's Forum. They'll probably say treat it like a cutting board: Wax/oil.

I love Waterlox, but personally would not use it here. I'd be concerned with oil-based varnishes off-gassing and smelling and tasting funky.

[Lloyd Butler]

I would think several coats of Shellac would be fine. It is at least a food safe finish.

It should not dissolve due to the water as a solvent. You would need to soak your tortillas in alcohol for that.

The heat may soften the finish, but since you are not leaving them there for several hours I would not think that it would hurt the finish.

A harder film finish left to cure for several days should also be ok.

This is a short term food dish, not a long term storage container. So a food safe finish that will help keep the wood from soaking up the moisture should be ok.

Lloyd

[Brian Kent]

I'll await the wisdom of the finishing forum, but may go ahead with the shellac. It is so easy to repair or sand or put something over it that there is no harm.

[robert baccus]

Especially gin and tonics.

[Brian Kent]

Gin and tonic tortillas?
:eek: