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lumberjoe
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2893 posts in 1964 days
11-13-2012 02:57 PM
My wife’s new obsession is edge grain cutting boards. She’s made about 6 over the past week. There are two that came out just so-so compared to the rest. The would look awesome as end grain boards though and there is definitely enough meat to chop them up and re-glue. The problem is they are finished. They got a pretty good coat of mineral oil, then a coat of a mineral oil/beeswax mixture. If I go at these with some 60 grit or send them through the planer a few times, will I have a glue-able surface?
Board in question:
--
Charlie
1100 posts in 2002 days
#1 posted 11-13-2012 03:40 PM
Once they’ve been sanded I wouldn’t put them through any machine with blades (jointer, planer, etc). You can probably warm them up and then wipe ‘em down with denatured alcohol. Treat them as though you are gluing up an oily wood. Warming them up will soften the wax. I think this falls under the “you-really-gotta-just-try-it” heading :)
healeydays
2 posts in 1741 days
#2 posted 11-13-2012 04:35 PM
I too would suggest the heat and wipe method. It should draw out most of the wax.
#3 posted 11-13-2012 05:12 PM
What you you heat it with, hair dryer maybe? I’m thinking a heat gun or torch would be a little extreme.
AandCstyle
2796 posts in 1973 days
#4 posted 11-14-2012 12:38 AM
I understand that there may be some residual grit left from sanding, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use the thickness planer to remove enough material to get past the oil penetration on edge grain boards. Am I missing something?
-- Art
#5 posted 11-14-2012 01:07 PM
Art, that was my thinking as well. I definitely have enough meat to take at least 1/16” off this board. I think I will give that a shot. I wasn’t sure how deep the oil really penetrates, this my question. Mineral oil doesn’t dry, so I assume it just keeps going as deep as it can. On end grain boards, I have actually seen is soak completely through the board. If I don’t get it all after sanding and some light planing, I’ll just refinish the board and leave it as it is.
#6 posted 11-14-2012 02:50 PM
Joe, I doubt MO will soak very far into the edge grain, but let us know what you learn. However, you may need to shorten the board significantly because, as you noted, MO does travel well through end grain.
#7 posted 11-14-2012 02:59 PM
I’m hoping I don’t need to shorten it a lot. I don’t like darker end grain, so while I sand the edge grain to 220, I sand the end grain to 1000, and I go really light with the MO on the ends. In the picture above, you can see the color of the end grain matches the edge grain perfectly. Hopefully not much got through – but I fear the walnut really wicked it in regardless.
#8 posted 11-14-2012 05:53 PM
Heat and wipe drew out the wax (thanks for the tips!). I used a heat gun gently and some DNA really helped wipe it off after. After some sanding and planing to the point of no return ( I took about 3/16 off each side so the board is about 1 1/4” thick now), it’s still oily. I think that damned mineral oil made it all the way through – especially the maple.
Lesson learned
Brandon
4151 posts in 2667 days
#9 posted 11-14-2012 06:16 PM
At this point, I’d just call it a cheese board and give it someone for xmas.
-- "hold fast to that which is good"
#10 posted 11-14-2012 06:18 PM
That’s what’s going to happen Brandon. I sanded it back down to 220 and re-oil