Is pure Lemon oil...

[Mike Canaris]

good to apply on a butcher block?

[Jeff Horton]

My sister the chef say to use an oil that will not go rancid (if your going to use it for food). She used either vegi or canola and I can't remember which one. Olive oil for sure.

[Hoa Dinh]

Nothing beats mineral oil: inexpensive, readily available, no odor/smell/taste, doesn't go rancid.

[John Miliunas]

Yeah, what Hoa said! Made a bunch of boards over the years and have yet to find anything better. :) :cool:

[Norman Hitt]

NO Lemon oil, NO Vegetable oil of any kind, JUST Plain "MINERAL OIL" is the safest.
If you want a little more "Sealer Protection" from water when washing it, you can use a double boiler and heat some mineral oil and melt some canning parafin into it, (about 3 parts mineral oil and 1 part parafin), and apply it to the butcher block while it is still hot, then use the straight back of large butcher knife to scrape off any excess after it cools.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

All organic oils encourage and feed bacteria ( go rancid).
Only petroleum oils are aseptic
That leaves low molecular weight mineral oil.

Pertoleum Jelly (Vaselene) is high molecular weight mineral oil.

No known bacteria can thrive when in mineral oil - NOT because it's toxic (it is not toxic) but rather because it is not a food source. They simply can't convert it to food.

[Roger Everett]

The last boards I made, I soaked them in mineral ol. Although I think the next time I will be wearing latex gloves, as from handleing them ( I think it was by osmosis ), but I read a lot of magizines the next morning.
Roger

[Vaughn McMillan]

I've used lemon oil on guitar fingerboards, but as others have said, you shouldn't use any organic oils on a cutting board. Mineral oil is my preference. I like to soak my cutting boards in it for 24 to 48 hours. I'll put the board in a shallow baking pan, and slather the oil on both sides, and let the board sit in the resulting pool of oil. Every once in awhile, I'll check the board for "dry" spots, the re-coat the board (usually flipping it over, too). Within 24 to 48 hours, when the "dry" spots stop appearing, I figure it's saturated and I take the board out of the oil and wipe it down hard with paper towels. Then I wrap it in cotton towels and let it "bleed" off the excess oil for another day or two. So far no complaints from quite a few customers.

(I've always done this bare-handed on dozens of boards, and haven't seen any mineral oil osmosis symptoms. Maybe I just have tough skin. ;) )

- Vaughn

[Doug Ketellapper]

When oils go rancid it is due to oxidation, not bacterial spoilage. I've never had any vegetable oil on the shelf go bad because of bacterial action, but I have had it go rancid on me.

Also, there are bacteria that can break down petroleum products. They are used for clean-up after oil spills and such. I've used one of these products recently on machine oil in water. The commercial product name escapes me at this moment.

I used Mike Mahoney's walnut oil, and his walnut oil/beeswax to finish some endgrain cutting boards over Christmas. Worked quite well, and smelled nice too.

[Mike Canaris]

Thanks guys for all the answers...LOML bought me a bottle of mineral oil today of all places IKEA....near the the departement where they sell butcher blocks....never would have thought to look there...:confused:

[William Bachtel]

I agree use mineral oil only.

[Dan Racette]

Can you link me to this oil?


When oils go rancid it is due to oxidation, not bacterial spoilage. I've never had any vegetable oil on the shelf go bad because of bacterial action, but I have had it go rancid on me.

Also, there are bacteria that can break down petroleum products. They are used for clean-up after oil spills and such. I've used one of these products recently on machine oil in water. The commercial product name escapes me at this moment.

I used Mike Mahoney's walnut oil, and his walnut oil/beeswax to finish some endgrain cutting boards over Christmas. Worked quite well, and smelled nice too.

[Doug Ketellapper]

Dan, sorry for the delay, I've been out all day. The boiled walnut oil can be found at Woodcraft, if there's one near you. But since I wanted to use the oil/beeswax finish as well I ordered directly from him here:

http://www.bowlmakerinc.com/catalognew.html?Vl=3&Tp=2&SortBy=ID

Very fast service, but then he's just one state over from Colorado. You also can get larger volumes of the Walnut oil directly from him. I highly recommend it.