I have beautiful wood chopping block counters in my house. I use mineral oil on them and have also used a conditioner that has mineral oil that I found at Home Depot. Both only really last a few days before the wood starts looking dry again. Do any of you have wood counters and how do you keep them nice?
Do you cut on this counter? Since mineral oil and/or beeswax don't dry, they work for cutting boards.
If you don't cut on it, lots of finishes are food safe when fully cured. The problem is how do you remove oil and wax so that other finishes will work.
I like to use Osmo or Rubio Monocoat on most of the furniture I build but I follow that up with a ceramic coating that is waterproof. The one I use is made by Carbon Method, but there are a number of products available. There lots of videos on youtube on how to apply these products too.
Edit to add that the ceramic coatings for wood are similar to the ones used on cars.
Neither mineral oil or beeswax evaporate, so you are not losing them. They are penetrating. How many coats of sealer are on the wood? Do you wipe it off after X amount of time, or do you let it penetrate until it all soaks in? I suggest applying a coat of oil each night before bed for about a week, (wipe off in the morning if any is left), and then use the conditioner.
When I make a cutting board, I soak the board in mineral oil for a few hours. Then I take it out and let all the excess drip off. After that I wipe it down several times a day until it stops weeping oil. That might take a week or more, and there might still be a tiny bit of oil appearing after that. However, after a week or so, I coat the board with a conditioner made with mineral oil and beeswax. It's the same thing sold as a conditioner, but much cheaper because I make it myself.
Depending on how much a board is used it will need more conditioner from time to time.
Thank y’all for the ideas! I always thought that I was wiping the mineral oil off my counters. I didn’t think about them not having enough oil within. I’ll try oiling them for several days and see how that goes.
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