Urethane coatings on new boards?

Find deals on amazon
Japanese Knives - by Tokushu Knife
Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Chicagohawkie said:
His shop is right down the road from me. FYI, you can contact via eBay I think. Ask seller a question about item. Unless that’s changed, which seeing how bad ebay is now would not surprise me. I’ll see if I can dig up the shop number in barrington Illinois.
Click to expand...
I got a hold of him through ebay messages, his website's 'contact me' link was broken last time I tried too.
 
Polyurethane varnish or other brand names are just oil mixes that will soak into the wood. Urethane varnish is a cooked and refined oil product that will dry hard on and in the surface of the wood (such as General Finishes Arm-R-Seal Urethane Varnish). A lot of the stuff on the hardware store shelves are pretty much the same with different price tags and colorful containers. Stick to mineral oil for your boards and save your money.
 
slickmamba said:
What was the price before shipping and customs? I was looking for a board around those dimensions, maybe 2" tall since my kitchen island is pretty tall.
Click to expand...

List price was 245 dollars. I made a lower offer and it was accepted, let's say 19% lower.
 
Chicagohawkie said:
His shop is right down the road from me. FYI, you can contact via eBay I think. Ask seller a question about item. Unless that’s changed, which seeing how bad ebay is now would not surprise me. I’ll see if I can dig up the shop number in barrington Illinois.
Click to expand...

Ebay completely blocked all attempts from me to message the seller. I tried on 6 separate ocassions.
 
Michi said:
Very pretty! Post a photo once you get it please. Preferably with some knives sitting on top ;)
Click to expand...

Definitely will. I might even put a big tomahawk steak on top of it as well :) I didn't get the juice groove, figured I could just route one myself later if I really, really decide that I want one.
 
1) Are you sure that it's urethane?

2) There are lots of petroleum based finishes that are food safe that aren't mineral oil

When I make boards I usually use mineral oil, but there's a downside in that it requires a lot more maintenance than a finish like this: https://www.woodcraft.com/products/general-finishes-salad-bowl-finish-pint

If you use a finish like this your board will probably not take mineral oil if you apply it.
 
podzap said:
Is it this one? http://www.jaygeewood.com/index.html
Click to expand...

Yes, that is Joseph's company...same as 227wood.

I asked him about the urethane and this was his explanation:

"The urethane help keep the boards looking good for a longer time. It keeps the moisture content of the board better equalized to keep them from cracking. The urethane is not designed to seal the pores of the wood. It just helps the mineral oil do its job better."
 
jacko9 said:
Stick to mineral oil for your boards and save your money.
Click to expand...

The urethane is only applied as part of the manufacturing process, before applying mineral oil.
Future maintenance is mineral oil and/or board butter, not urethane.
 
parbaked said:
Yes, that is Joseph's company...same as 227wood.

I asked him about the urethane and this was his explanation:

"The urethane help keep the boards looking good for a longer time. It keeps the moisture content of the board better equalized to keep them from cracking. The urethane is not designed to seal the pores of the wood. It just helps the mineral oil do its job better."
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks for the explanation - a lot of people wonder about that, including myself.

He does have a sort of cult following around "finer" circles.
 
Michi said:
Very pretty! Post a photo once you get it please. Preferably with some knives sitting on top ;)
Click to expand...

The walnut board from 227wood arrived today. Photos with my phone camera and bad lighting don't really show just how beautiful this board is. And it's smooth as a baby's rear end. Weight 11.9 kg / 26 lbs.


300mm yanagiba

IMG_0802.jpg



200mm gyuto

IMG_0803.jpg



165mm nakiri

IMG_0804.jpg



Address of the vendor (227wood)

IMG_0813.jpg
 
crockerculinary said:
my question is "why choose urethane instead of mineral oil or min oil/ beeswax combo?"
my guess as to the answer is aesthetics with less work. it will look nice, but it doesnt sound like the right choice to me. seems bad for the health of the board and bad for the health of the knife.
Click to expand...

I think you nailed it. The downside of the oil/wax combination is it has to be re-applied. It would be SO much easier if there was a 'one and done' application for end grain butcher block. An application of varnish would probably be faster and less expensive than soaking in mineral oil and buttering. The other advantage of a hard/curing finish is it tends to be a bit shinier, which makes the board look a little prettier out of the box (not sure about after years of being chopped on). So a varnish has the advantages of being faster to apply, offering a semi-permanent moisture sealant, with a nice initial aesthetic. Some of the potential downsides are... eating varnish, potential issues with the varnish inhibiting bacteria wicking (one of the main benefits of an end grain butcher block), chopping on varnish, eating varnish, and eating varnish. I'm not a hand-wringer when it comes to food safety, and there's a common trope in woodworking circles that, "all top coats are food-safe when fully cured." But I'd argue that just because I can, in theory, eat a thing without getting sick doesn't mean that I should.

As an aside, one of the celebrities in woodworking is a furniture maker named Marc Spagnolo. Super talented; great teacher. He puts out a ton of video content. He did a cutting board video back in 2006 in which he described the pros and cons of a traditional oil/wax finish versus a wiping varnish finish. Some woodworkers took that video as license to varnish wood cutting boards, which probably wasn't the best advice. The vast majority of professional cutting board makers stick with oil and wax.

I wish there was a better mouse trap... but there isn't one. It would be easier to go a different route, but I don't believe it would be better.

Podzap, I hope your butcher block gives you many years of good use and meets your previously defined criteria of the 'best.'
 
Mucho Bocho said:
Well said John. Thanks for the professional advise. No varnish for my boards.

Also Podzap, posting another woodworker and non-kkf member contact information is akin to giving kkf paying vendors the finger.
Click to expand...

Possibly if the name of this forum were "cuttingboardforums.com"...

Other people, including myself, were looking for this information. And we had already mostly established it earlier in the thread, so there you go.
 
John Loftis said:
Podzap, I hope your butcher block gives you many years of good use and meets your previously defined criteria of the 'best.'
Click to expand...

Thanks, she's currently sucking mineral oil despite whatever alleged treatment she might have had at the factory. Wasn't shiny out of the box, either, but starting to shine up nice with some oil.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top