I soaked a bone dry cleaver handle in mineral oil overnight based on some **** I read online. A week later and it's still oozing mineral oil. Tried gentle heating with hair dryer but just makes it ooze more. Pls halp.
When will my handle stop bleeding
- Thread starter chiffonodd
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Leave that b*tch in direct sunlight outside all day, preferably on a rack of some sort so it can drip/ooze freely. Repeat as needed until it finally expels all the extra oil.
Wipe it down often with rags, may take weeks or months to stop seeping out.
Preheat your oven and a sheet pan with cooling rack at the lowest temp (ideally 100-200 F). Put the knife on the cooling rack, turn off the oven*, and wait for an hour or so. Wipe up any excess oil at the end and repeat as necessary.
*Or leave the oven on but monitor temp closely with a thermometer
*Or leave the oven on but monitor temp closely with a thermometer
Lowest my oven can go is 170. Thanks, I'll try it.
Y'all if I stop posting it's because I turned my oven into an incendiary bomb.
As suggested, warm it up. Wipe off excess. Then seal with beeswax.
Hrmm the wax I have is for board conditioning and it's blended with mineral oil. is this acceptable? moar oil moar problems?
I'm not sure how those handles are affixed, but normal glue will melt at 170f. Baking in the oven is a common way people remove handles.Alright guys here goes nothing.@tostadas if i die you can sue my estate for the rehandle fee.
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It's got a rat tail tang that goes all the way through and is hammered sideways at the end to secure.
Excellent, not an issue then.
Better than no beeswax. Not as good as beeswax, since, you know, the handle is full of mineral oil.
Heh I did that to a client’s handle back in the day when I was charging $3 / knife and didn’t know anything. I guess the point is there’s a bunch of extra space in the middle for the oil to hang out in? Or cracks (in my case)… Never had that problem with other handles.
Welp after an hour in the oven set to 170 and then turned off, I'm happy to say that 1) I am alive, 2) the knife and handle are intact, and 3) the handle appears to have expressed about a teaspoon of mineral oil 
Handle still feels a little slick but much better. Might repeat and then wax it when I get some.
Handle still feels a little slick but much better. Might repeat and then wax it when I get some.
tostadas
Hobbyist / Craftsman
If you are wanting to plug the gap, don't use board butter wax/oil blend. That stuff gets soft too easy and will make a mess. If you're gonna use wax, use just beeswax.
Personally I'd mask off the blade and ferrule, then use a bit of epoxy. That's what I do with all of cleavers where I keep the barrel and metal ferrule handle.
In the future, you can avoid the mess with a drying type oil, like hardwax oil. Some examples include osmo polyx, odies oil, tried and true and Rubio monocoat.
Personally I'd mask off the blade and ferrule, then use a bit of epoxy. That's what I do with all of cleavers where I keep the barrel and metal ferrule handle.
In the future, you can avoid the mess with a drying type oil, like hardwax oil. Some examples include osmo polyx, odies oil, tried and true and Rubio monocoat.
I would just use any sort of beeswax to "seal" the wood, not plug any gap between the handle components. I think I'll forgo epoxy for now to make it easier to maybe replace the handle down the line. Hint!
Interesting. Can you use that on boards too? I've been oiling a new board the last few days with mineral oil and it's a real PITA.
i wouldn't recommend using that hard-wax oil for a cutting board, but it is a nice oil for a handle finish.
use a white pad while applying it and wear gloves. it is really pain in the anal to clean it.
use a white pad while applying it and wear gloves. it is really pain in the anal to clean it.
tostadas
Hobbyist / Craftsman
Ah, yea in that case, it will work fine. It will always retain that sorta wet feel due to the oil. And the beeswax only lasts for a few scrubbings, but both are easy to reapply if needed. Mixing beeswax with mineral oil definitely makes it easier to apply to the wood. It also helps to warm it up (both the wax and the handle).
With Odies, it should be all non-toxic ingredients. This is my current choice for wood finishing. With other brands, you might want to double check with the manufacturer first. When I used to use Osmo hardwax oil, it had a pretty strong chemical smell.
I have not tried it on any of my boards though.
Jovidah
I'll make you a sponsor offer you can't refuse...
There was a long discussion on Dutch woodworking forums on this (involving some chemists) and basically their conclusion was to just go with grapeseed or walnut oil on boards.
Tung oil is technically the superior 'natural' option, but the problem is that it takes a long time to cure, and on a board you cut on you're just going to cut up the outer polymerized layer anyway... so it's a bit of a waste since you'll have to re-oil it just the same. Tung oil might be the better choice for stuff like wooden utensils.
I agree that mineral oil is highly overrated. Yes it's idiotproof since you can't really go wrong with it, but it also sucks the big one because it'll never cure and will leech / wash out way too easily.
Right or wrong, I have been using this Caron & Doucet stuff on my cutting boards and also using the oil on my knife handles. Seems to work well with no residue, stickiness or odor issues, and I have done several initial applications to let it soak in, then periodic light reapplication.
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If there’s gaps where the tang enters the handle, OP might want to try hanging the blade upside-down to see if any more oil drains out. It might also help to repeat the oven treatment but flip the knife over to the other side.
Yeah I don't get it. So many board manufacturers tout multiple coats of mineral oil. I now hate mineral oil with an oleaginous passion.
Odies oil. Hard to beat that, and has a great smell too. Downside is that if jar is opened, will go rancid if u dont use it for a long time. Still good to use, but smell changes.
tostadas
Hobbyist / Craftsman
I dont think it goes rancid, but the stuff in the jar will slowly harden over time after you open it and it's exposed to oxygen. There are products out there with inert gas that you can spray inside the jar before you close it back up which help to inhibit that curing process. Bloxygen is one of them.
Although Osmo Polyx is impeccable for certain tasks (I won't use anything else to finish handles), I would not put it on a cutting board. Instead, I'd use another product from the same maker--namely, Osmo TopOil.
TopOil is food safe.
Yeah if you soaked the barrel handle and ferrule in mineral oil if probably filled the hole going through the handle and the metal ferrule section with oil. That was probably part of the reason it kept coming out. Also that type of wood seems to soak up a lot. Once you get it to stop I would take Tostadas advice and seal the top gap. I think I used hot melt glue when I did it.
rub it with menopause medicine
Jovidah
I'll make you a sponsor offer you can't refuse...
My guess is manufacturers recommend mineral oil because you can't really ruin a board with it. It never polymerizes, so it's very forgiving in how you apply it... Oil that hardens is a bit more finicky in that sense and it's easier for a customer to screw it up.
It's also a safe recommendation in the sense that if you say 'mineral oil but no vegetable oil', customers are likely going to end up with the same thing. Whereas if you say 'grapeseed oil or walnut oil', half the customers will say 'well I've got olive oil so I'll use that instead, it's the same thing right?', and then potentially end up with a rancid board down the road, which might be RMA'd.
