finish for rolling pin?

[Jeff Clow]

I will be turning a rolling pin from cherry for my wife for Christmas. What would be a good finish for the main part (not necessarily the handles)?
At this point I am considering poly, or butcher block oil (mineral oil). She would be using it maily to roll out dough & pastrys.

[Jim Becker]

No finish or just mineral oil. You do not want a film finish on the roller as you need loose flour to be able to adhere to it to prevent sticking when rolling out certain types of things like pastry dough and pie crust.

[Ken Rowe]

Hi Jeff,

I use either Mineral Oil or Walnut Oil. They are both food safe. The finish will eventually wear off. Tell your customers to just rub more of which ever finish you choose. Polly has not been certified as food safe even though it probably is once the finish has completely dried (about 5-6 months).

Note: Walnut oil must be refrigerated or it will turn rancid in time. For some reason, unknown to me, it doesn't turn rancid on wood.

Ken Rowe

[Russ Sears]

I don't have an answer but I'm going to watch this thread and learn. My first thought was whether you might want to leave it unfinished.

[Ron Ainge]

Jeff

Whatever you do, do not use cooking oil because it will turn rancid and your wife will not be a happy person and you may have to sleep with the dog for a few days.:p

[Bernie Weishapl]

Jeff I would either not use any finish or just mineral oil.

By the way all finishes today are food safe once cured at least 72 hrs.

[Andrew Derhammer]

I don't have an answer but I'm going to watch this thread and learn. My first thought was whether you might want to leave it unfinished.
Wood is actually anti bacterial. They've done studies of plastic cutting boards vs. wood butcher blocks.

[Bruce Smith]

Jeff if I were you I would leave it natural, no finish at all. If you decide to use an oil finish I certainly would not recommend mineral oil, as you no doubt know that it is a petroleum product. Perhaps I'm from the old school as I don't use mineral oil on items that will be in contact with food. Good luck with whatever you do and I'm sure you wife will like it.

[Jeff Clow]

Thanks everyone for your responses.
What I'm going to do is leave it natural & see how the wife likes it. I can always add oil later...harder to remove it. Now that I think about it, most that I have seen for sale commercially, have been natural.
The oil I have is labeled "butcher block oil" which I bought for a cutting board that was drying out real bad.
That board is a sink cover/cutting board in an RV that sits in storage most of the year (including Georgia summers). I think from heat & lack of use it was getting dried out, so I got the oil for it.

[Jeff Nicol]

In the food industry all the oil that is used on machines that may come in contact with food use mineral oil. They buy it 50 gallon drums. I have a couple of gallons of food grade mineral oil and it has been filtered and processed to make it completly food save. Every plastic cup and bottle are made from petroleum products and we sure use a lot of them! We most likely breathe in every day more contaminates from exhaust fumes, chemical vapors and just plain sanding dust in our shops!

Nothing to fear but fear itself........

Jeff

[Reed Gray]

Mineral oil, walnut oil, vegetable oil, all will work. Some times oils can go rancid. This is more from extra sitting on the surface and accumulating there, and then being left in a closed area for a time with no fresh air. No finish works fine as well, as most of what she will be rolling out has some oil or shortening in it. It can be washed, either mild soap, and a rinse, or table salt and lemon or lime, or most of the time a good rinsing and scour off any extra flour, then dry and air it out.
robo hippy

[Jon Lanier]

Here is my food safe formula for a paste Wax:

It is really quite simple.

First thing I do is take the wooden bowl and rub in Mineral Oil or my preferred method of Walnut Oil. After allowing that to soak in and dry I use this formula:

12 oz of Mineral Oil
2 oz of bee’s wax
1/2 oz of Carnuba wax

I melt all of that over a medium heat in a metal bowl that is sitting on boiling/hot water. I then poor that into a Wide mouth Mason Jar.

Now, this is a mix that gives me a medium dense paste. Some may prefer softer and some may prefer a harder wax. All you need to do is to soften is to add more mineral Oil…. to harden… don’t use as much mineral oil.

I have a Cherry Bowl that I use strictly for ice cream and this method works quite well.

[Paul Engle]

Just a thought, I have a maple one ( actually SWMBO'd's) from over 50 yrs ago, never had any finish , and never any problem .... fits the dent in my head jusstttt rightttt.....:cool::D

[Jeff Schutzman]

I have made two rolling pins. One I used pure tung oil, then buffed with carnuba. The other was just buffed with carnuba. The buffing made the rolling pin nice and pretty for the gifting. But in both cases the wax left the rolling pin after a small number of uses. Today, the tung oiled rolling pin looks much nicer than the unoiled rolling pin, and it cleans up easier. I suspect the oil penetrated the wood pores and polymerized to seal the wood.

There are lots of food safe finishes, many of which are mentioned in this thread. If you are open to additional ideas, below is a link to an article that mentions one or two more options. IMHO, there are enough really good natural choices that there doesn't seem to be any reason to go to a manufactured or synthetic finish.


http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesArticle.aspx?id=26893