re: First butcher block

Does grape seed oil go rancid, like olive oil and such (which is why it and similar oils shouldn’t be used for wood).

Many use walnut oil for wood projects, but it’s a hardening oil, and you don’t want that on the surface of a butcher block or cutting board.

On price and such, Walmart sells oil for around a buck twenty-five a pint. I keep at least one or two on hand in the shop and have one for the house.

As I mentioned, as long as the wood absorbs it, I keep adding, in this instance, non-hardening oil. Wood full of oil isn’t going to crack and split. Nor will it absorb other things. Too, the wood fibers will remain resilient.

Oil doesn’t evaporate off, like moisture in wood does, the latter which causes shrinking, thus cracking and splitting or separation of joints. Instead, if you’ve been generous with the applications, but it seems like the wood is drying, it’s really just that the oil has wicked to adjacent cells.

Because it takes time for the oil to wick, the longer oil sets on the surface, the more oil you get into the wood. Similarly, frequent light applications can go far toward saturating and protecting the wood.

I cheat and thin my oil. The thinner will gas off and leave the oil behind. Thinner oil soaks in quicker though, so, if you have time, that’s one way to get aggressive oil applications on an in the wood.