alt Hacker NewsSome recommend non-edible petrol-based mineral oil (aka liquid parrafin) because it doesn’t go rancid, but has the same effect of not actually doing much for protection and will leak into hot liquids.
Highly-refined mineral oil is food-safe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_oil#Food_preparation
Why even use wood if you’re going to cover it in a layer of clear plastic?
I find it amusing that those who will use wood or "natural" (petroleum is also naturally occurring...) products for some sort of weird misguided eco-virtue-signaling, inevitably end up needing to basically reinvent the chemistry of finding an inert, durable material that brought us modern plastics. All these drying oils create a layer of polymerised material, which can be classed as plastic anyway. Waxes, regardless of source, attribute their properties to long hydrocarbon chains, just like polyethylene.
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There is a large difference between extracting fossil fuels from the ground and using substances extracted from plants. Only one of them is renewable, and hence the only sustainable way for the human species to live.
I have used a 50/50 blend of food-safe mineral oil and beeswax with good success on my little hobby projects (and as a regular treatment for my cutting board) but admittedly I'm not making ladles you'd dip into boiling soup, so I paid less attention to the extreme temperature issue
>All these drying oils create a layer of polymerised material, which can be classed as plastic anyway.
No, that is absolutely not the case.
Ah yes: "Congratulations! You have just completed the cycle of recapitulating the collection of processes which have brought us the present!"
Wood is rigid and won’t melt or scratch
100% - this sort of insanity is just silly.
Author here, I was mostly referring to the practice of coating the wood in a layer of smooth plastic that makes the wood not feel and look like wood anymore. It's like something that you want to keep encased forever.
I'm of the same opinion as you, drying oil polymers are still plastic, it's just that their method of curing makes them look better on wood, most likely because of the very thin layer that remains at the surface, but also because of the polymer surface texture.
Every epoxy resin, even the more penetrant ones, end up looking like plastic on wood, not sure how else to describe it.
But in terms of chemistry, food safety and how inert they are, they are indistinguishable.
I'm also aware mineral oil is food safe, I was trying to say that it will leak into the hot food and not stay in the wood fibers, which renders the finish useless after just one use.