Friends,
I am planning to make some wood spoons, spatulas and forks out of interesting woods for Christmas presents. I went to a carving contest last Saturday and saw one spatula made of Olivewood. It was beautiful. I have not had much experience with other than the “Normal” woods (pine, oak, maple, poplar, walnut, etc). I looked up Olivewood in the following website:
http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/roche/rec.wood.misc/wood.toxic
and found
Olivewood I,S E,S,R +++ W,D C
where
I = irritant
S = Sensitizer
E = eyes,
S = skin
R = resperitory
W = Wood
D = Dust
C = Common
I know the guy who make the spatula out of olivewood and he uses one every other day or so — no problems for him or his family.
My question: Does anyone have any experience or advice about using exotic woods for wooden spoons, spatulas, etc that would be used while cooking?
What woods would you recommend that I not use? that I use?
Thank you.
Mel
PS – I know this question is not about “Fine Woodworking” but some Christmas presents need to be made, and I don’t have time to make everybody a step-back cupboard. đŸ™‚
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
Replies
Mel,
This has come up a few times before, so I will relay what I found out after doing some research myself.
At one time I thought I had heard that walnut was not a good choice - but then someone posted photos of a walnut spoon that they had been using for umpteen years and hadn't killed them yet. So it may be ok.
The recommended woods are close-grained domestic hardwoods, with the best candidates coming from fruit-bearing trees (ie: pear, plum, apple, cherry). The olivewood you mentioned is another favorite, but I found it hard to find in nicely figured pieces big enough for spoons.
Now, none of this is gospel. Just what I found out from reading up on it on the internet and talking to an old-timer who made some very nice spoons and bowls at some of the local craft shows.
As for exotics, I'm not sure. I haven't seen any, but that doesn't mean they can't be used. One of the thing you have to be careful of is stuff leaching out of the wood if you leave the spoon/utensil in a pot of food while it is cooking.
Good luck,
Lee
Lee,
Thanks for the info on domestic close grained woods. In the places I go most frequently, one doesn't find apple, pear and plum, but there is plenty of cherry. I have also heard from David Ring that olivewood is probably ok.I appreciate the info.
MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
Dust is by far the worst thing about the "problem" woods. With a couple of exceptions for woods that are outright toxic, wood in solid form is usually far less troublesome.
The ones marked with just an "S" (sensitizers) tend not to cause problems as kitchen utensils with most people, because they require repeated exposure, and you typically don't get enough exposure from the wood in a cooking spoon, etc. for the sensitization to "grab hold," so to speak. But as with anything else, it's possible for some individuals to be far more sensitive than average. The rosewoods (including cocobolo), ebony, gonçalo alves, ebony, and yes, olivewood, have all been known to cause contact dermatitis in some people. (Again, this is usually after repeated exposure.)
Tropical woods are generally worse than temperate woods. Because the trees have far more insects and other pests to contend with, they contain more endogenous insecticides and other compounds that are potentially harmful to humans. (Then again, caffeine is a naturally-occurring insecticide that people seem to get along with just fine.)
If you want to be absolutely, positively safe, I believe white ash is about as hypoallergenic as you can get. However, fine-grained, close-pored woods are probably better from a hygiene point of view. Commercially available wooden spoons and spatulas seem to be mostly made of beech.
-Steve
Steve,
Thanks for the help. I am not going to use the woods that you listed as more problematic. I will probably make a few from olive, and I have some cherry and some nice figured maple. I have printed out the wood toxicity list.
Thank you.
MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
Mel,
Given the nature of wood there's probably someone somewhere who's allergic to any given species. But you can play it reasonably safe by just avoiding the notorious ones, such as imbuya, padauk, wenge, etc. Little utensils made from olivewood are very common in my neck of the woods (as well as figurines of camels and kitchy religious stuff) and I've never heard of a problem with it. I'd also look at Zebrawood which in small doses can be stunning.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
Here's a good one - i've heard that some of the oldtimers used to make "mother-in-law" spoons .....of the trunks of poison ivy vines.
HB
David,
Thanks for the response from the land of olive trees. If you guys use em, I'll give em a try.
MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
Humm just a thought, but after reading this thread I have to wonder. My father had an eye infection around Xmass of last year, that was cleaned up (with antibiodics and such) and he is once again having the same thing (and eye infection). The thing that makes me go Humm. is that last year he was doing a lot of wood finishing (sanding) on some Cherry and a LOT of clear Pine, and this past month or so he has (wait for it) been doing a lot of finishing on Cherry and a LOT of clear pine.
So I wonder if this may be the cause of the repeat infection?
If so what do you do about it. I will NEVER get him into goggles or a full face mask. This is a man that live (as a child) through the bombings in europe in WWII and then was in some of the nasty stuff in Korea, and they have his photo on the page for "Stuborn old Coot" So I would need some sort of outside fix (well patch maybe)
So I guess that would be better DC on the sander, A down draft table (home made or bought) and or a whole room filter. (on the plus side this may help with the thread about Xmass gifts).
I guess I will have to have him ask his eye doctor about this. It is a pretty big issue as he had major issues seeing for a day or two last year. This must have scared him enough that he went to the doc befor it go to bad this time (no it did not scare him enough to get him into any sort of real eye protection beyond safety glasses.)
Doug
Doug,
I am very sorry to hear about your father. Please keep us posted on what you learn about whether dust caused the eye problems. I have been moving toward the use of more different types of wood. I have heard some horror stories. No one knows a good way to find out if I will be affected. The answer seems to be "Give it a try." I do wear a full face shield and a dust mask when sanding, and I have been getting away from sanding more and more. I have been using knives, chisels, gouges and planes more. If one wanted to be 100 percent safe, one would choose another hobby or profession. I want to be reasonably safe. Please let us know what you learn. Thank you for posting the information about you dad. I wish him a lot of luck, and a full happy healthy life.MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
Unless you're working with spalted wood or something like that, I don't think it's likely that you could get an actual infection (that responds to antibiotics) from working with wood. But it's possible that the irritation from dust, etc. is enough to exacerbate an existing low-level infection.
-Steve
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