Why so dark

[Liam C]

I have been making some end grain serving boards out of blackwood and they were looking beautiful, right up to when I put a mineral oil finish on them. They have gone so dark you can't see any of the lines in the end grain.
My guess is the timber. I was shocked at just how dark mineral oil made it go.
I want to make a large cutting board to go with the serving boards. Any suggestions to help keep the end grain pattern would be greatly appreciated.
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[BobL]

Hi Liam, welcome to the forum.

What you have a experienced is pretty normal - point for the future, always do a test run on a scrap piece of wood with the intended finish to see how dark it goes.

Most oils will darken dark wood and the darker the wood the darker it seems to go.
I have had some reduced darkening using Danish oil oil on some timbers but it's not consistent.
The thing with chopping boards is it doesn't take too many hot washes for the oil to fade so if you are chasing a lighter grain look from the start try using paraffin or bees wax.

On the jarrah floor board below the 3 dark swatches are Medical grade mineral oil, paraffin chopping board oil and linseed oil.
The light swatch on the LHS is plain paraffin wax
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Wax also eventually washes off.
When I give a chopping board as a gift I usually include a small bottle of the oil or a small container of wax (my standby is a takeaway food sauce container half filled with wax and a small cloth pad). .

Here's the back of guitar I made from Blackwood.
Thats 7 coats of wax.
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[brit]

All oils will darken timber and blackwood is ruined using oil as are many other dark woods.Watco make a butcher block oil that will solve your problem however it is no longer imported but there is another butcher block finish to replace it but forgotten the name . Try shellac or lacquer as they are both food safe. cheers John!

[China]

You may want to try this FoodSafe Plus (http://www.ubeaut.com.au/FS+.htm)

[Liam C]

Thanks for the advise!!

[Liam C]

That guitar is stunning!!

[Mnb]

End grain soaks up any finish too. Combining that with oil and dark wood means really dark.

[ubeaut]

WARNING....

Foodsafe Plus will darken the endgrain on blackwood and most other dark coloured timbers. Not as much as some of the other oils but the same as paraffin oil will.

There is a major butcher block, chopping board, etc manufacturer here in Geelong IHR (https://www.butchersblocks.com.au/)who supplied boards for Master Chef and also for Marco Pierre Whites' restaurants in UK.

These are all finished with our Traditional Wax (http://www.ubeaut.com.au/trad.html) which is food safe. He supplies a tub of the wax for upkeep with the boards etc, he sells.

:U

[Fumbler]

444307

Welcome aboard, and as all before me said, its end grain and susceptible to soaking up the oil and darkening (sometimes way too much). And the reason your light coloured timber used for the mortar stayed light, was because this wasn't end grain like the blackwood.

here is my Jarrah/Blackbutt, pre-oiled, oiled, and in / out of the sun. out of the sun its dull boring and lifeless. I forgot about the darkening effect on end grain and the blackbutt darkened too much for my liking.

[poundy]

and the blackbutt darkened too much for my liking.
Throw it out then! Tell me where you live and when you're going to leave it out on the nature strip though first, ok? :)

[Fumbler]

Throw it out then! Tell me where you live and when you're going to leave it out on the nature strip though first, ok? :)

I'm in Lane cove so you'd better be quick..... stuff doesn't last long out there. hahahaha

[poundy]

I'm in Lane cove so you'd better be quick..... stuff doesn't last long out there. hahahaha
Sutherland - so an amount of advance warning will be necessary. But make it a weekend OK? :)