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When it is necessary to treat the board with mineral oil

Time for next treatment of a board depends on many factors, but the main thing is moisture variations in the room. A board can stay untreated for months under small variations of moisture and nothing will happen. However, in wintertime heating season starts and air moisture greatly decrease. At this time, it is necessary to treat board with oil more often. There is no strict rule how often you should do it. Nevertheless, we can give you few advices.

- A board becomes noticeably brighter;

- Light spots starts to appear in some places of a board;

- To the touch board becomes “dry” and rough

- On the side face of a board microcracks appeared, which are invisible, but you can feel them with fingers;

- Water or liquid products does not stay on the surface of the board (as it should be), but it is absorbed inside the board.

All the signs are that it is time to good treatment of cutting board with mineral oil.

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Stability of wood

Shrinkage and swelling happens under moisture changes.

Shrinkage is the process of reducing the size and volume of the wood due to reduced amount of water in it. Shrinkage of wood caused by content of water in the dry air, and there is process of returning to the environment of the adsorbed water from the cell walls of the wood. Thickness and size of the cell walls reduce because of disappearance of the absorbed water. Excessive shrinkage of the board may be the cause of the occurrence of cracks; shrinkage of a one side may be the reason of bending the cutting board.

Swelling is the process of increasing in size and in volume of wood due to increasing water in the wood, which depends on content of water in moist air or water.

We use 8% moisture level wood in End Grain Cutting boards manufacturing.  Under air moisture increasing wood moisture increase too, and swelling occurs; shrinkage occurs under moisture reducing. Different wood species react differently to moisture changes.

Averages changes of wood characteristics when the wood moisture from 8 to 9% and vice versa

 

Wood species

Averages changes of wood characteristics, %

Walnut

0,20

Ash

0,22

Birch

0,24

Oak

0,25

Maple

0,30

Beech

0,32

 

Wood moisture changes are less than air moisture changes. The table below shows that, for example, when moisture changes from 50 to 40% at a temperature of 20 ° C (68 ° F), wood moisture reduction is 1.5%. Temperature has a much lower impact on the wood moisture. For example, increase in temperature from 20 ° C (68 ° F), to 30 ° C (86 ° F) at a relative moisture 50%, reduce the total moisture content of 0.4%.

 

The change in the wood moisture content in %, depending on the climatic conditions according to Calvert (the numbers in the table indicate the wood moisture content)

Atmosphere relative humidity %

Temperature

 

10°C (50°F)

15°C (59°F)

20°C (68°F)

25°C (77°F)

30°C (86°F)

35°C (95°F)

40°C (104°F)

90

21,1

21,0

21,0

20,8

20,0

19,8

19,3

85

18,1

18,0

18,0

17,9

17,5

17,1

16,9

80

16,2

16,0

16,0

15,8

15,5

15,1

14,9

75

14,7

14,5

14,3

14,0

13,9

13,5

13,2

70

13,2

13,1

13,0

12,8

12,4

12,1

11,8

65

12,0

12,0

11,8

11,5

11,2

11,0

10,7

60

11,0

10,9

10,8

10,5

10,3

10,0

9,7

55

10,1

10,0

9,9

9,7

9,4

9,1

8,8

50

9,4

9,2

9,0

8,9

8,6

8,4

8,0

45

8,6

8,4

8,3

8,1

7,9

7,5

7,1

40

7,8

7,7

7,5

7,3

7,0

6,6

 6,3

 

35

7,0

6,9

6,7

6,4

6,2

5,8

5,5

30

6,2

6,1

5,9

5,6

5,3

5,0

4,7

25

5,4

5,3

5,0

4,8

4,5

4,2

3,8

 

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End Grain Cutting Boards disinfection

If you are interested in saving your board usability we recommend you to treat the board with mineral oil. This procedure is advised to prevent mold, growth of bacteria and odor absorbing. We do warn you – use only mineral oil but vegetable one due to its rancidification.
To treat the board with oil just pour and rub it on all surfaces with soft cloth. Please, do not be afraid of overflowing – wood cannot soak up more oil than it able to soak up. Then dry the exessess with cloth.

It is possible to improve the board with adding beeswax on oil. The beeswax for a long time is used to make wood smooth, soft, waterproofing and more durable.
To get a composition take 4 parts of oil and 1 part of beeswax. There is two ways to mix ingredients:

Heat the oil in bain marie then add beeswax chips;
Put the mixture in the microwave to 30-45 sec.

Then rub up the mix. Unlike with pure oil, cooling it fills in each pore and split, achieving smooth, firm and durable surface that yield to polishing with cloth. Making a point – the composition could be heated and used as effective as before.

It is necessary to treat with oil (or mixture) the board at least 3 times with 5-6 hour interval – the oil should soak in. The treating procedure is recommended to repeat monthly.

General servicing rules are here:

Let’s get acquainted with another ways of care:

  1. Vinegar - strong white vinegar can be used to disinfect your cutting board keeping it free of Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Staphylococcus. It is mostly advised to people with chemical allergy.
  2. Hydrogen Peroxide – use 3 percent solution to rub the board after treating it with vinegar.
  3. Bleach – if you need to disinfect the wood cutting board you can do so by mixing a diluted bleach solution. Prepare a mixture of 1 litre of water and one cup bleach. Wipe the cutting surface down with your bleach solution then rinse off.  Immediately wipe the board off and set it upright to dry. Any bacteria will not survive in dryness.
  4. Salt and Backing Soda - spread Salt or Baking Soda over the cutting surface of the board. Allow it to stand on the board to a couple of minutes before brushing off and rinsing.
  5. Lemon juice – rub the board with the juice. In a few minutes wipe, wash and rub the board with dry cloth. This way neutralizes strong odors like onion, garlic, fish etc.
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Solution to problems

Seasonal moisture gradients inevitably lead a small change in wood volume. Of course, these changes does not matter for cutting boards, nevertheless we have to consider it in practical use of the board.

In wintertime, house heating is reason of moisture decrease, and wood dry out; in summertime, moisture is increasing and wood is splaying out. In addition, it is clear you should not keep boards within easy reach of heating appliance. The only way to protect wood of moisture gradients is covering with slushing oil. In cutting boards case it is necessary to quite often (preferably not less than once a month) smear with mineral oil board surface to fill wood pores. With proper care, board will serve you at least 10 years.

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