On Mon, 10 Jul 2006 20:14:03 -0500, Jim Willemin
wrote:

I just finished sanding a little knife block to hold a Chinese cleaver and
a small chef's knife. I used some red oak that was lying around the shop,
gluing it all together with Titebond II. Now: I think I recall that
vegetable oil is the right finish for food-contact woodwork; my questions
start with this: Wouldn't a vegetable oil finish eventually get rancid?
SWMBO has a hellishly sensitive sniffer, and I'm afraid that if the oil in
the wood starts to get a little manky two of my favorite knives will be
either banished altogether or sentenced to a life lying naked in the
silverware drawer. What *is* the right finish? We have quite a few
different oils in the pantry: peanut, olive, canola, corn, and can get
stuff like safflower, soy, sunflower and more that don't leap to mind right
now. Of course, I can also get the more traditional woodworking oil
finishes. I am blessed with choices and cursed with ignorance - help!

I don't think there is any "right" finish. However, for kitchen
woodwork, that does not get routinely immersed in water, I use
shellac, then several rubbings of soyabean oil. The old saw applies:

Once a day for a week.
Once a week for a month.
Once a month for a year.
Once a year forever.

At least I think it's something like that, I more or less follow it,
and it seems to work very well.

Barry Lennox