Oil Kitchen Woods - PEP BB nest.sand.utensils

I oiled up the majority of my wooden utensils today, along with a few chopping boards. I always keep a few items back for use as I like to let the oiled utensils harden/polymerise for a few days before getting them wet.

I chose to use tung oil. It's a nut oil from China and, along with linseed oil, some of the best hardening oils used as a woodworking finish. Unlike linseed oil (which in its "boiled" form often contains unpleasant additives), it is easy to obtain the pure version. There is some controversy surrounding the food safety of tung oil but I have found numerous sources which claim that, once fully dry, it is fully food safe. Due to it being cold-pressed and additive-free I feel it is a very environmentally sound oil. Further, it comes from a tree nut which is a good way of promoting the protection of trees - similar to how eating brazil nuts is quite a nice way to conserve the Amazon (albeit a small part!)

Most sources recommend using a thinner with tung oil. I'd like to get hold of some citrus thinners but they are very expensive over here. I've tried with both mineral thinners (yuck) and without and, frankly, I think there is little to be gained by thinning the oil. Perhaps it helps penetrate the wood further and would need less frequent re-application, that remains to be seen. For this BB I used pure tung oil without any thinners.

Here is a video of the process. I show the oil, the assortment of utensils, some action shots and then the utensils in their drying positions. They will remain there for a week before use.

I used coconut oil for on the wooden handled things I could find.

I used organic coconut oil because it's all I had on hand (I don't have walnut oil and I'm out of olive oil currently). Since I was oiling I went ahead and did all the wooden utensils in the kitchen, which turned out to be four cutting boards, a wooden spoon, a rolling pin, and a whisk and a frosting spreader (I think that's what it is? That's what I use it for) with wooden handles. It's hard to see the difference on the lighter wood, but the difference is more obvious on the dark cutting board.

I had nine wooden utensils, some older some newer.  I oiled the utensils with walnut oil, plus I oiled the cutting board.

I oiled 2 serving boards, 2 olive wood bowls, a cheese board and my rolling pin. I used walnut oil. Thank you so much for posting this BB. Clearly my wooden items needed some love. I have a dozen or so other items in the house which are now going to get this treatment.