I am salvaging some old salad bowls. One in particular has absorbed a tremendous amount of vegtable oil. I am sanding the bowls to more atractive shapes, which removes some oil, but many stains remain. First question; how to remove the oil? Second question; how to remove the (dark) stains? I want to serve food from the bowls so I have some responsibility to use safe techniques. Best wishes, Flip T
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Start with the easiest and least toxic, dish detergent. This will clean but not de-stain. Then use bleach if the finish is just oil and is removed, to kill any fungi/ bacteria. This should lighten it somewhat. Then try oxalic acid and rinse off. Recoat with mineral oil only as it is a food surface.
thaqnk you Jackplane! I am a new person to the knots thing. You responded within an hour or so, Thanks.
The washing and bleaching suggestions will remove surface oils, not the oil soaked deeply into the wood. That will eventually come back to the top. If you let the bowl sit for a week in a warm place with a layer of baking soda or whiting (powdered chalk), that will pull more of the oil out. Not all, just more. Wash with detergent and dry thoroughly. Sand it if you want or use scotchbrite. Then put a wash coat of shellac on the bowl. Its edible when dry. You don't need to make a glossy finish, just a coat to seal it. That will keep the rest of the oil and smell sealed inside. Shellac is one of the few things that can be applied over a non-drying oil and still work. If you use the bowls a lot, you'll need to refresh the shellac occasionally.
He says he is going to use these. Shellac will not be durable through washing. The best thing to do is just get as much oil off as possible with detergent, sand and use them as is.Gretchen
True, the shellac comes off. But, I'd rather add a coat of shellac every couple uses than smell rancid salad oil. A matter of personal preference. Likewise, I don't like mineral oil. It doesn't dry. Any oil attracts dust and hence bacteria. I prefer to seal bowls so any oil doesn't get in as easily. Shellac is easy to just wipe on with a cloth. Wood bowls are pretty, but for the kind of salad I make, not so practical. I use regular ceramics. If I serve from a wood bowl, I don't dress it in that bowl. Makes cleaning more reasonable and the shellac is practical in that case.
I think he's going to be able to get the oil off and out with soap. It isn't really deep in the wood unless someone just immersed them in vegetable oil--unlikely, I would think. And I wouldn't use mineral oil on salad bowls either--I don't even use it on my cutting board. Just leave it bare and clean them well.Gretchen
hello Gretchen,
One of the bowls is my mothers. She would never use soap and only wipe the bowl out after nightly use. It is hard maple and absolutely saturated throughout with oil. I am getting the oil out and baking soda is drawing more out.
Thank for your thoughts. Best wishes, Fliip T.
What do you plan to finish the bowls with?
Hello,
I have been using mineral oil. I was brought up with just leaving the salad oil on the bowl, phew! My mother had one of these bowls saturated!
I plan on using either a thin shellac or something I picked up at Woodcraft Suply by General Finishes out of New Berlin, Wisconsin called Salad Bowl Finish. It is an aliphatic Hydrocarbin (what ever that is! they claim to be non toxic after 72 hours of brying) I did one newer bowl with it and it is hard and smooth (320 grit), seems ok.
Can you read the other coments I'm getting? Bob teaches me that shellac is one product that can be put on top of a non drying oil. I like and trust shellac, but I wish it could be an oil compatable with the flavors of salad.
This is a lot of thought and I notice that is how the process is as we get older. Thanks and best wishes, Flip T.
GF's Salad Bowl Oil is just and oil/varnish not much different from other Oil/Varnishes. All interior finishes are required to be non-toxic when cured since the mid 1970's when lead was mandated to be removed. Personally, I don't think it will adhere to an oil soaked surface. And, I don't think shellac will last too long either. Shellac does not like the acids that are in many salad dressings.Howie.........
Edited 1/14/2005 4:06 pm ET by Howie
Theoretically, walnut oil is a drying oil. You could just make all your salad dressings with walnut oil. Or, you can make dressing like I do with lots of garlic, anchovy and blue cheese. I guarantee you won't notice the oil. Could be 10W40 or WD-40 and you still wouldn't taste it. Some salad bowl finishes are parafin wax dissolved in solvent. You could just wax it. Same problem as shellac. It comes off easily.
I have done many washings with Cascade detergent, and the oil is greatly subdued in the worst case, and in most cases removed. Stains are under control. So simply stated, what finish? Oil with an occasional washing with soap and water sounds like our most durable, practicle, and comon choice. Flip
Having been a 3rd generation butcher we put peanut oil on wood blocks after they were cut and scraped. It sealed the wood and put a yellow sheen on the maple.
Thank you Butch. My favorite bowl is still full of oil. So for that one it will be oil in the future.
Best wishes, Flip T
Please Butch, do not suggest to people that they put peanut oil on cutting boards or salad bowls. There have been two long discussions here at Knots in the last few weeks about peanut allergies and how very, very serious they can be. It's a tradition that needs to fade into oblivion to protect those who suffer from that allergy, as for the most sensitive it can take an incredibly minute amount to send them to the hospital (or to the morgue).
Thanks. PS: That goes for walnut oil also.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
I've only used mineral oil on my cutting boards for several years now. I even heard that the FDA says that's all anyone should use. Vegetable oil, peanut oil, canola oil, etc can all turn rancid.
Washing with soap & water should clean them up just fine. The trick (I think) would be to NOT soak them. Just wash them well, let them dry, and repeat as necessary until they're clean. When they're clean and well dried, sand them smooth, tack them off, and put on the mineral oil.
A few months ago, my daughter asked me for "some kind of oil" for the cutting board I had made for her a couple of years earlier. With a perfectly straight face, I handed her a can of 10W-30. She was almost to the shop door before she realized that dear old dad had just yanked her chain yet again. - lol
"dear old dad had just yanked her chain yet again." Hah! You and my hubby would get along great, LOL!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Flip,
I had a similar situation not long ago. Someone asked me to refinish a big butcher block that had been used to carve turkeys and prepare all kinds of food, and it had not been conditioned in something like 10 years (or at least that's how long the owner admitted to).
In my shop, I gave the block a thorough sanding and all the oil was gone. I went upstairs for the night. When I came back the next day, the surface was just as oily as the night before. I thought maybe I had just been tired the night before, so I sanded it again and again left it over night. Next day: it was just as oily. The wood was so saturated that the oil just kept oozing to the surface no matter how many times I sanded it down.
When I reported the problem, the owner asked me to make her a brand-new board out of mixed woods. I cut the old one into strips and tried to decipher how deep the oil went. The strips are sitting over in a corner of my shop.
Thank you for the reply. I have not given up on these bowls, because they have been in the family for years. The smallest has been around for over fifty years. Time to throw them out. But, instead I have the chance to really learn something. I have learned, after perhaps ten hours on each bowl, that soap and hot water brings out the old oil just like letting the bowl sit overnight. So I have speeded up the process and the bowls have not suffered.
I know that I'm overdoing this, and yet why not do the best I can? Thanks again, Flip T.
Are you overdoing this? If you're moral compass points only towards money as the overarching value, you bet! But, who can place a value on family and personal history? Only you, anyone who says differently is wind in the willows. Sounds good, but is gone tomorrow and leaves nothing behind!Using mineral oil is a safe bet. But I don't like it much - it looks dull and crude and stains everything the bowl sits on. All the "lead-free" oils and varnishes may be lead free, but most have some other heavy metal drier that doesn't look as toxic as lead after 1% the toxicological scrutiny that lead has endured. The walnut and other drying oils? Great if you're not allergic to them. If so, well, that's what epinephrin injector pens are for!I've melted parafin into wood and it looked good for quite a while. The wood was runners for a crude sled that hauled lots of gear into the winter sierra. When I ate enough food and burned enough fuel so I didn't need the sled anymore, it made a good hot fire! Has anyone melted carnuba wax into food grade wood bowls or utensils?
>> ... and stains everything the bowl sits on.That just prodded me into thought. There's no rule that says a person has to use the same finish on the inside and the outside. You could use mineral oil on the inside and a hardening oil like tung oil on the outside.
You have a fine idea! Would I be wrong to use tung oil on both sides of the bowl?
I would have no hesitation, if I already had tung oil on hand. I wouldn't go out and buy some just for this application.
In fact, I wouldn't go out and buy any finish for this application. I think your mother's approach of letting the salad oil be the seasoning will work just fine if you rinse out all the water soluble bits with hot water after eating and wipe the bowls completely dry, inside and out, with clean rags or paper towels, every time you use them. By completely dry, I mean that a clean, dry, cotton cloth would slide over the surface with no slightest sense of drag, just as it would over a china plate. If you do that, there will be enough oil left on the wood to keep it from looking dried out, but not enough to ever get sticky.
Um, you started this thread January 13, and here it is still going on February 18.
Maybe good china would be your best bet for salad bowls.
I agree. I have touched on many avenues of discipline. It's been good. Thanks to all.
Someone asked me to refinish a big butcher block that had been used to carve turkeys and prepare all kinds of food, and it had not been conditioned in something
Many years ago I refinished a sausage bench--now there is grease for you. It has a severely distressed surface from the cleavers being used to cut the meat before being put through the grinder. I used acetone to remove the grease. Might be worth a try.Gretchen
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