Hardware >

to be updated

• aka butcher blocks

• You want wood

  • Plastic is acceptable
  • Stone, glass, composite and bamboo are trash

• Oil and leave it overnight or for a couple of days

  • Repeat every so often.
• Wash both sides every time you wash it, to prevent warping.
• Scrub stains with baking soda and water
• Remove scents with baking lemon and salt, (and water if needed) rubbing it in then letting the salt dry before scraping it off, cleaning and oiling it.

• If a cloth catches on burs, then use sandpaper grit 100 then again at finer grits

  • Sand in the direction of the grain

Taking care of your wood ∞

Butcher blocks, cutting boards and the like which are made of solid wood need to be taken care of.

Before first use, oil it. Use an oil which is suitable for food.. something which you could eat and which wouldn't kill you outright. A vegetable or mineral oil works. I used olive oil, of all things. An oil which doesn't have a scent is probably best. So I probably chose wrong. =)

Spread it liberally across the surface and let it soak in for a bit. Repeat the treatment until you're reasonably satisfied that you're bored of doing this.

Wipe any excess oil off and let it sit for 24 hours or more.

Then repeat the process, leaving it for another 24 hours before you use it for the first time.

Don't ever leave it soaking in water, and indeed don't leave anything wet on it. Wipe and dry it after every use.

Don't subject it to high temperatures or leave it near heat sources.

2006-01-13 ∞

I picked up a butcher block, which I'll probably never use for butchering, but it's a big honkin' piece of wood. A piece of wood which comes with instructions. Because it's a big piece of wood from Ikea, and everything from there has instructions. Well these instructions said to oil it, which I did.

What an interesting experience. I love working with wood in various ways, even though as with everything I've got no clue what I'm doing. I used olive oil, because that's what I had, which was quite rapidly soaked into the wood. The texture of smoothing out the oil across the back of this cutting board was quite interesting.

Strangely, it took several applications of oil for me to be satisfied.. because it would quickly soak it up. I probably could have gone further, but I decided to oil the sides and the back. If I can call one side the back that is.

Curiously, the "back" only took the one application before it decided it had enough. Maybe a lot of oil soaked through to that side already? I dunno.

I'll return to it and oil it again in 24 hours, as per the instructions.

I took some pictures.. which will get posted when I figure out how to get USB stuff mounting properly again. Sigh. (misadventure)

This butcher block would later be retired in Ants Ants Revolution! (Tuesday March 28th, 2006)