Spyke
piefed.social

Is tung oil good for cooking utensils? I love that tung oil leaves a crust that can be slightly polished. I just wonder how long that would last.

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phthevenreply
lemmy.world

Seems to work for me. It's food safe and polymerizes well. I oil them daily for about a week, then i let them fully cure for a couple of months before using them.

I haven't experienced this crust you're referring to. I flood coat the first coat and wipe it off, then all subsequent coats are very thin and even. I get a pretty hardy finish like this. I've noticed the layer looking a bit dull after i stir some pasta, so boiling water is probably not great. But that dullness just goes away again when i fry something in oil.

The flat plank spatula has survived about 3 years of near daily use. I've had to trim off a little bit of porosity from the tip once in this period. This is the third time I'm oiling this one, so it looks like a coat can last for about a year.

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pilferjinxreply
piefed.social

Yeah I'm talking about the polymerization. If you oversaturate the wood it can seep out a bit and start to harden. It can be polished down to give a semi gloss which is nice. I was just wondering about the maintenance mostly. Do you reapply the tung oil again and wait for the curing to finish or just use it right away?

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Oh i know what you're talking about, I've done this to a mallet of mine. I basically submerged it in linseed oil for a pretty long time. It still secretes this substance you speak of to this day.

Since then my flood coat is just a couple of big drops in the spoon that i spread around with my fingers. I use rubber gloves, but it still feels pretty good.

When i reapply i do wait another couple of months before i use it again. I have duplicates of most things, and if i don't it can usually wait a couple of months. I'm fairly sure i'd be able to drink the stuff i have here, so I'm not worried about that. I just don't want it to wear off before it is cured.

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lemmy.world

Some beautiful pieces! Love the rippled spoons.

How long have you been making your own wooden utensils?

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Thanks! Been making those little plank spatulas for years. I make them from a really hard native wood, so stand up to a lot of abuse and last a long time. The one in the picture has been in almost daily use for about 3 years now, and still going strong. These are great as gifts, but be warned that some people don't appreciate the effort that goes into making a really nice and thin little plank.

I only just started carving green wood, so all of these spoons are from the last couple of months. It's going okay, but i ruin about 60% of the spoons I carve. Sometimes i accidentally take a chunk out of the bowl, sometimes the handle cracks, sometimes the wood just refuses to be a spoon shape.

I think a lot of the skill in spoon carving is choosing the right chunk of wood. I have much to learn.

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