Refinish Handle?

[silylanjie]

Helping Cory post this picture

These came out good, nice work!

[CoryS]

https://www.chefknivestogoforums.com/vi ... p?p=18#p18

Thanks. Still couldn't figure it out, but one of the posters offered to post it. Oh, just posted - Thanks.
It's of the Nakagawa Bunka with the Takeda Stainless Clad Petit.
The blade of the Nakagawa is REMARKABLE and the handle now close to perfect. There was nothing wrong with it - it was really just me. The wood had a tactile feel that I prefer now that it's not so "woody".
Will do a better pic. Was just in a hurry with other stuff going on.
Thanks again all.

[CoryS]

Helping Cory post this picture

corys.JPG

These came out good, nice work!

Many thanks.

[Jeff B]

Try this Cory.

Below the "quick reply" box select "Full Editor & Preview" tab.
In the next screen select the "Attachments" tab below the reply box.
Select "Add files" and you will be able to select a picture from your computer.
Then select the "Preview" tab and it should show the picture in your post.
Hit submit and you're good to go.

[CoryS]

Try this Cory.

Below the "quick reply" box select "Full Editor & Preview" tab.
In the next screen select the "Attachments" tab below the reply box.
Select "Add files" and you will be able to select a picture from your computer.
Then select the "Preview" tab and it should show the picture in your post.
Hit submit and you're good to go.

My bad. That's easy.
Will do next time.
Thanks.

[Radar53]

I'm late to this one, and it caught my eye because I'm just in the process of oiling a new board, and refinishing / oiling one of the boards I use the most. The first is a small cherry board (280 X 120 X 8) I recently bought and the second is one of my long time reclaimed kauri boards (330 X 215 X 30).

I've been a fan of 100% pure Tung oil for a decade or so. I did a fair bit of research before choosing and there's many workable options. There's also a lot of confusing advice / stuff all over the web. Two or three years ago, I found this video ( Tung Oil ~ The truth <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsjnRcmC840> ), which I found very useful.

The second coats went on this morning. The small cherry board is still soaking it up & the previously oiled kauri board is really just wanting a finish coat or two now. I really like how the Tung oil accentuates the natural grain & beauty of the wood and I find it's a very durable finish if applied correctly. HTH

[billk1002]

Grant, nice, I found that same video about a year ago when I was making my first handle, I ended up getting the Tung oil and have been very happy with it.

[Radar53]

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction in that while I'm pretty diligent about my boards, I've never oiled any of my wooden handled knives??????

[XexoX]

Well, in the handles you could use Polymerized Tung Oil, but it isn't easy to find, and in search a few hours ago for it, I discovered that Lee Valley is using mineral spirits with their Polymerized Tung Oil. This kinda makes it pointless. By polymerizing the oil, it will dry faster and is food safe. Adding in the mineral spirits to make it thinner makes it not food safe. You may as well use any tung oil, as they have additives to make them dry faster. These additives are not food safe.

tl;dr make sure any Polymerized Tung Oil you use is food safe, if you are going that route.

Oh, I wouldn't use Polymerized Tung Oil on cutting boards. Handles should be fine.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, in progress.

[billk1002]

Well, in the handles you could use Polymerized Tung Oil, but it isn't easy to find, and in search a few hours ago for it, I discovered that Lee Valley is using mineral spirits with their Polymerized Tung Oil. This kinda makes it pointless. By polymerizing the oil, it will dry faster and is food safe. Adding in the mineral spirits to make it thinner makes it not food safe. You may as well use any tung oil, as they have additives to make them dry faster. These additives are not food safe.

tl;dr make sure any Polymerized Tung Oil you use is food safe, if you are going that route.

Oh, I wouldn't use Polymerized Tung Oil on cutting boards. Handles should be fine.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, in progress.

I use the tung oil on the raw wood handles that I make.
I use Mark’s handle & board wax on my board.

[taz575]

I use mineral oil on boards and pure tung oil on kitchen knife or wood handles. Synthetic handles get pure stuff or the polymerized stuff, depending on my mood.

[Radar53]

holy moly, all the permutations & combinations Thanks for the input and sharing, much appreciated.

Polymerized Tung Oil, now that's a new one for me. I will do a bit of follow-up on it, although Mr Xerox, you say you wouldn't use it on cutting boards. Any chance you could enlighten me on why please? Given that Tung oil is derived from nuts, my first thought was "Great" because that sounds like a way of eliminating the "nuts / chopping board" combo as being even a very slight risk for those who are allergic to nuts.

Also thinking of you guys in the States with all the severe weather, storms and tornados and stuff. Kia kaha, stay strong & keep safe.

[XexoX]

holy moly, all the permutations & combinations Thanks for the input and sharing, much appreciated.

Polymerized Tung Oil, now that's a new one for me. I will do a bit of follow-up on it, although Mr Xerox, you say you wouldn't use it on cutting boards. Any chance you could enlighten me on why please? Given that Tung oil is derived from nuts, my first thought was "Great" because that sounds like a way of eliminating the "nuts / chopping board" combo as being even a very slight risk for those who are allergic to nuts.

Also thinking of you guys in the States with all the severe weather, storms and tornados and stuff. Kia kaha, stay strong & keep safe.

I may have this all wrong, but tung oil is used as a finish. I think of the oil treatments on cutting boards more as a preservative, keeping the wood from drying out to much. Tung oil finish would be like cutting on a furnished table top. Not something I really want to be doing.

Still, this maybe the wrong view. I'll ask a friend who knows all this stuff

And yes, we are having all this weird weather, but you folks have earthquakes and volcanoes going off, invasive species wiping out your rare native birdies, constantly be confused with Australians, etc.

[Kekoa]

Well, in the handles you could use Polymerized Tung Oil, but it isn't easy to find, and in search a few hours ago for it, I discovered that Lee Valley is using mineral spirits with their Polymerized Tung Oil. This kinda makes it pointless. By polymerizing the oil, it will dry faster and is food safe. Adding in the mineral spirits to make it thinner makes it not food safe. You may as well use any tung oil, as they have additives to make them dry faster. These additives are not food safe.

tl;dr make sure any Polymerized Tung Oil you use is food safe, if you are going that route.

Oh, I wouldn't use Polymerized Tung Oil on cutting boards. Handles should be fine.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, in progress.

I have the book Understanding Wood Finishing by Bob Flexner. According to him mineral spirits do not inherently make a finish not food safe. Basically mineral spirits are a carrier that evaporates very easily at room temperature, it is used to make the finish a viscosity that can be easily applied. Once it is exposed to air it starts evaporating until finally your finish is dry and fully hardened. At this point, theoretically, there are no longer any mineral spirits left in the finish. I will say that I'm still a little wary of whether some unpleasant chemicals could be left behind, but supposedly according to an expert, it would qualify as food safe. Full curing takes about 30 days on average, not just until the finish feels hard though.

In addition to this, according to this same book, most synthetic resin finishes (basically a type of plastic), which includes virtually all common varnishes and lacqures, are food safe when fully cured. While I know many people use plastic cutting boards and they are obviously regarded as food safe as well, plastic and it's chemicals aren't really good for you in general, deffinitely not if it is ingested, which is going to happen if you use it as a cutting board. Synthetic resin finishes are pretty much a thin layer of plastic applied to wood, so for me that would defeat the health benefits of using wood cutting boards, plus it introduces a hard layer that is not very kind to your knives.

Obviously using plastic at any level is a judgment call, it is not as if we can avoid coming into contact with it nowadays, most of my food is after all packaged in plastic, but since it is something I can avoid, I like to use unfinished wood cutting boards. At most I just treat them with oil, although even the oil may not be very necessary for maintenance based on my understanding of wood. Maybe more on that later.