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I use mineral oil when I make cutting boards because it makes it pop. But I have not been finding any. Would baby oil be a good or decent replacement? Is there any other oils that would work, maybe even better than mineral oil?

Ljk2000
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    For what it's worth, I find my mineral oil at my drugstore or at a general store such as Walmart in the pharmacy section. – Maxime Morin Jul 09 '16 at 00:28
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    I buy mine in IKEA. If there's a store nearby, look for the SKYDD wood oil. – PeterK Jul 09 '16 at 04:29
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    Do you want your cutting board to smell like a baby? Don't baby it. Someday that cutting board has to grow up and act like a man. – Treow Wyrhta Jul 09 '16 at 09:35
  • @Treow Wyrhta that is funny, good laugh thank you. I have found mineral oil. And now somebody told me to take course sandpaper (60) and scratch it up so the mineral oil soaks in. Is this really necessary? – Ljk2000 Jul 09 '16 at 13:32
  • @Ljk2000 I've never had to do that on my end-grain boards and the oil goes through in less than a day. (1½ inch board) – Maxime Morin Jul 09 '16 at 14:17
  • No it's not necessary so scratch up a board to make the mineral oil soak in. But then it's not necessary to oil many boards in the first place, it is 99% for looks. And actually boards are more sanitary when left un-oiled. – Graphus Jul 10 '16 at 17:52
  • I did not know that, thank you for the answer (@Graphus) – Ljk2000 Jul 10 '16 at 23:17
  • Jacob Edmond - I can't imagine a good end grain cutting board lasting a generation without oiling. You must live in a very humid environment. I have seen these boards start to crack and separate without regular oiling. – Thebob Jul 30 '18 at 00:48

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Baby oil is just mineral oil with fragrance added - so you're not going to kill anyone, but there may be a smell..

I normally use Olive Oil on cutting boards.

PeteCon
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  • If you use Olive oil, would that make canola or vegetable oil okay as well? – Ljk2000 Jul 09 '16 at 00:51
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    Probably.. Any oil that you'd be happy to eat is, I think, fine for the boards. – PeteCon Jul 09 '16 at 01:02
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    Olive oil will go rancid over time. Same with vegetable oils. – Steven Jul 09 '16 at 12:36
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    Agree that olive oil could be problematic. FWW article about food safe finishes: http://www.finewoodworking.com/how-to/article/food-safe-finishes.aspx (Summary: pure tung oil, raw linseed oil, mineral oil, walnut oil, beeswax, carnauba wax, and shellac are top of the list.) – Aloysius Defenestrate Jul 09 '16 at 14:46
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    @Steven. The conventional wisdom that vegetable oils will go rancid over time once applied to wood is largely unfounded. The warnings not to use them are repeated on woodworking forums a lot but usually it is from people repeating the warnings they've read without any personal experience. If you hang out on food forums a lot you'll read many posts from people whose families have always used vegetable oils for their boards (and salad bowls, tongs etc.) without it being a problem. I come from such a family and I can confirm it is usually not an issue. – Graphus Jul 10 '16 at 17:49
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    Interesting @graphus. Is it that it simply doesn't go rancid, or under normal use and washing, it is reapplied frequently enough that the problem doesn't occur? – Steven Jul 11 '16 at 02:14
  • @Steven, I've seen many debates on this and lots of speculation on the mechanism(s) but no science to back up any of the theories. I can't imagine that it isn't a combination of factors. I'm sure myself that the main thing is that it's applied to wood so it's not at all as if it was spread on a sheet of glass or plastic where it's fully exposed (and will absolutely oxidise and go smelly). I should clarify here that I'm referring to the type of light oiling typical on long grain surfaces, not the heavy oiling that some people do on end-grain boards where they seek to fully saturate the wood. – Graphus Jul 11 '16 at 07:33
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    I can't give an authoritative answer, because this is based on a sample size of two cutting boards.. I had two cherrywood chopping boards in the UK; always used vegetable oil on them, for over 15 years. No problems. I moved to the US, and left the boards in storage for 8 years. When I pulled them out of storage, they had gone rancid, so I binned them. So I think they need to be maintained (semi) regularly. – PeteCon Jul 11 '16 at 17:38
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    I have definitely personally experienced rancid vegetable oil on wood items, multiple times (I stopped making them, but I know other people who evidently either don't learn, or can't smell.) I either use walnut oil (a drying oil) and put a big allergy warning on them for tree-nut allergic people, or use mineral oil. Rancid vegetable oil is not appealing. – Ecnerwal Mar 17 '17 at 04:03
  • @Graphus There is a great documentary on Netflix called Cooked that has a feature of a nun who is also microbiologist. She makes moldy cheeses in a wooden vat as she was taught. She gets shut down by the government agency wherever she is and is told to use stainless steel as the wood will hold bacteria. She switches, and suddenly starts having ecoli issues. She convinces them to let her do a side by side study, and proves the the wooden vat naturally kills the bacteria. (I'm paraphrasing). I wonder if certain species of wood cutting boards are doing the same thing. – Jacob Edmond Mar 17 '17 at 14:13
  • Also, cast iron skillets are seasoned with oils like coconut or olive, so as long as you are actually using them regularly, I don't see it being an issue. – Jacob Edmond Mar 17 '17 at 14:14
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    @JacobEdmond - cast iron is heated, which polymerizes the oil. If you heat wood similarly, it will burn. If you don't heat the cast iron after oiling it goes rancid, but at least you can burn it all off and start over. Incidentally, flaxseed is also the preferred oil there (see the canonical seasoning cast iron answer...) – Ecnerwal Mar 17 '17 at 15:18
  • Raw linseed oil is the same thing as Flaxseed oil, and as noted in a comment above about FWW article, is great for cutting boards. – Truth Isoutthere Mar 16 '17 at 23:48
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    @JacobEdmond There is some evidence (referred to here once or twice) that wooden surfaces have a natural anti-microbial action that helps them be much more sanitary than one would suppose, certainly far superior to plastics. The primacy action appears to be one of dehydrating the bacteria, which makes sense given we know most woods have an affinity for water. In any case for long-grain boards my long-standing advice has been not to oil them at all, with any oil. Boards can last more than a generation with no oiling, even if washed regularly in hot soapy water so oil isn't needed for longevity. – Graphus Mar 17 '17 at 23:02
  • @Ecnerwal You didn't allow for a third option — other people simply don't get the same problems with rancidity. There are a host of possible explanations for the discrepancies in individual experiences that don't assume other people have a faulty sense of smell.... including regularity of washing (or its absence, I've talked to numerous people online who refuse to wash their cutting boards), the type of oil used (how processed it is is important, more highly processed = better), the amount applied and very importantly the amount wiped away. – Graphus Mar 17 '17 at 23:06
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Over the years, my family has used a lot of oils on butcher blocks on bbq trailers and prep tables. We only use "food grade" mineral oil. There are no additives whatsoever, as with regular mineral oil and baby oil. It's clean, filtered, scent-free and resists bacteria. We use it on wood and metal surfaces, including knives and cleavers. Plus, it's only about $17/gallon on Amazon. That works out much cheaper than small bottles of "cutting board oil", which is the same oil. Just don't use cooking oils or olive oil. They turn bad in the wood, smell bad and start bacteria growth. Wipe the board with plenty of oil and let sit overnight to soak in and always do BOTH sides of the board (very important). Oiling top only can cause warping. Many wipe the oil on boards with their clean bare hand. No waste and it's great for the skin.

Randy
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  • Hi Randy, welcome to StackExchange. Your Answer here needs some citations to read as more than an extended anecdote, e.g. what additives are there in "regular mineral oil"? As for "cooking oils or olive oil.... turn bad in the wood" please see the extended discussion in the Comments under one of the previous Answers (q.v. similar debates in many woodworking fora). Many, many people have used food oils for oiling wooden implements, bowls and boards without issue. Not just for years, but for decades in some cases — someone I spoke to online had a 50-yr-old bowl oiled with olive oil regularly. – Graphus Aug 12 '20 at 08:05
  • And there's a secondary issue that tends to get overlooked or glossed over in these debates, and that's about the need to oil (or do something else, e.g. using 'board butter') in the first place. Commercially true butcher block is never oiled, and from what I've seen and read long-grain boards and food-prep surfaces are nearly always left bare once in service. So there is plenty of anecdotal information (with modern research to back it up and suggest a mechanism) that tells us that wooden surfaces don't need to be treated to remain sanitary, as long as they are cleaned regularly of course. – Graphus Aug 12 '20 at 08:13
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You should be able to find food quality mineral oil online fairly easily in most locations.

Baby oil is probably okay, but I would shy away from the scented stuff. (Should be able to get unscented baby oil).

Mineral Oil is also typically available from pharmacies/chemists where it will probably be called paraffin oil.

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If you can't find online, or at a chemist, you can (I have been told with nothing to back this up), buy bulk quantities of mineral oil from farming supplies stores, where it is sold as a laxative. If I was going down this path I'd make sure there was MSDS available to verify it was 100% mineral oil with no additives.

Dave Smylie
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  • Depends what country you are in, what it will be called at the pharmacy. If your pharmacy is a chemist, the odds of it being paraffin oil are higher. – Ecnerwal Mar 17 '17 at 04:05
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I probably wouldn't use baby oil. It's filled with other ingredients that's may not age well, or mix well with cooking foods. If you can find a pharmacy they'll be bound to have both oils.

I for one am a monster that slices onions on a woodcutting board, but I'm not such a crazed individual that I want my onions to taste like babies.

MiFiHiBye
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    If you are going to serve babies, it's best to season them with shallots anyway. –  Aug 13 '20 at 14:15
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I use baby oil that can be purchased at dollar stores to treat cutting boards. No scent whatsoever. If it is made for babies, you know it is safe, since babies put their mouth on everything.

Paul Weatherby
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If you’re looking for alternatives, you might find suitable ones in the cookware sections of shops.

I wouldn’t use baby oil as it’s not intended to sit on a wooden surface for a long time, so might not last as well.

I’ve got a light wax with a pleasant orange scent (doesn’t taint food!) which is intended for chopping boards and wooden surfaces. I found it in the kitchenware section of a department store. It’s called “town talk wooden surface wax”, and - if you happen to be in the U.K. - I found it in John Lewis.

I’ve also got some “Catskills butchers block oil” which describes itself as a “pure mixture of mineral oils and vitamin E”, again intended for kitchen use and food safe. Again, came from a kitchenware shop.

I use them on anything which comes into contact with food or small children, though I prefer the wax, I find it easier to use and a nicer smell.

Dan W
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The only reason vege and olive oils don't go rancid for people..is they regularly wash and re-oil these surfaces... If they stop then it will go nasty. This is to say that you're micro-dosing bacteria and fungi when you use these organic oils as they're breeding on the surface, just not visually large enough colonies between abrasions.

Ptv83
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