Making a pizza paddle - suggestions?

[surfdabbler]

I'm making a cutting/serving board for pizza, and I'm just wanting to check that I'm on the right track for wood and finish choice...

I'm making the board from PNG Rosewood, with some pine strips for some light wood detail. I'm thinking of finishing with wax. I have beeswax (Dubbin) as well as carnaube (Trad-Wax).

FIrst on the wood - I was originally thinking about using up some camphor offcuts that I have, but I don't think camphor would be a good idea, considering that it will be used for serving hot pizza, and the heat could cause the camphor oil to infuse into the pizza. So, my next choice was PNG Rosewood. Hopefully this is hard enough to stand up to the pizza wheel being used on it. I know it will get scratches, and that's OK, so long as it doesn't disintegrate, and hopefully the wood is strong enough that the pizza wheel won't be taking chips out of the wood.

Second, on the finish - I considered an oil finish, but I already have the wax, so I decided against spending the money on a bottle of food-safe mineral oil, and I'm just going with the wax. But it only occurred to me this evening that wax melts, and perhaps this makes it a really bad choice of finish on a pizza serving board. What do you think?

I'm also concerned about the pizza/cheese oils getting into the wood and going rancid over time, so the more I can do to keep these out, the better.

Any comments or suggestions?

[surfdabbler]

Nothing? Oh well, I've cut it out now, so we'll see.

[BobL]

Our pizza paddles are made of pine, no special oils or finishes. One was left inside the pizza oven a touch too long and has some charred edges the other one was dropped and cracked along the glue line so I glued it back together with PVA and it has survived countless pizza servings since then.

[surfdabbler]

Does the PVA survive the washing up well? I started another thread about glue for this project, so I'm interested to know - perhaps you just don't wash yours?

[Trav]

In Italy they use olive wood for this kind of stuff. I think the natural oils would be enough to preserve it. As with any wooden kitchen stuff, I wouldn't wash it or soak it - just scrape it back and wipe it down. No need for oils or anything.

[BobL]

. . . . I wouldn't wash it or soak it - just scrape it back and wipe it down. No need for oils or anything.

We don't let our sit in the washing up water, we dunk it in the water and give it a quick scrub it down with the washing up brush and hang it up to dry.