I made a tofu press and have some Howard butcher block conditioner on hand. Is that enough for a finish or do I need something more?
I made a tofu press and have some Howard butcher block conditioner on hand. Is that enough for a finish or do I need something more?
That should be fine, just might need to reapply over time as it wears off. They actually say that no finish may be best for things like cutting boards, so could even get away with just leaving it as is.
I’ve also used Tried & True which is a blend of beeswax and linseed oil.
In my experience, products labeled “linseed oil” commonly have oil drying agents that you really don’t want to be consuming. Tried & True specifically claims to be food safe, but not all linseed oils are. “Boiled linseed oil” is never food safe. “raw linseed oil” may or may not be.
“Flax seed oil” and “linseed oil” are the same thing, but flax seed oil is edible, and will not contain drying agents. If you’re making your own finish, you might want to look for “flax seed” instead, or at least ensure the “linseed” oil is food safe.
One final note: If you’re working with linseed oil, take special precautions with your rags. They can spontaneously combust. We had a mysterious fire overnight in a trash can in my shop that we couldn’t immediately explain. A few days later, a discarded rag sitting on a workbench started putting out copious amounts of smoke while we were working on the other side of the shop, and we finally understood the trash can fire.