Smoke House

[8ball]

Hi, I need some help , Im making a smokehouse out of oak, and I dont want to just let it weather into grey , anyone know what I can use to maintain the oak look without causing any ill effects on the meat inside , I thought something like a cutting board oil would work, but I dont know about when its heated.

[tanii51]

we used an old upright clothes drier for a smoker or maybe line it with bricks would keep out any oil fumes when it heats up althought from memory it shouldnt get that hot

[ubeaut]

It's probably going to weather into that grey (silver) look no matter what you put on it even UV stabalised polyurethane will grey intime. The oil will not stop anything, on the contraty it may actually speed up the process.

You could try linseed oil. A few coats on the outside over a week or so will help protect from the elements. Still won't help with the greying though, might smell a bit.

Cheers - Neil

[A-Marks]

Slowing down the Silver aging of the OAK

I live in the sub tropics SE Qld Au

Around my way they all use Boiled linseed Oil as the other non-boiled goes black from a fungus and when it needs recoating they use normal Bleach to treat the timber before recoating.

I read somewhere that Boiled Linseed has some Toluene in it to speed up the drying - this stuff is really nasty, but if it's on the outside and if you make the smoker really well I cant see it being a problem!
i.e.
line the outside of the stud walls with Fibro cement boards joined with those little plastic strips that makes them waterproof, then line the outside of those boards with 200um membrane (same stuff as you put down as a moisture barrier for cement slabs) lap and tape the joins.
Then apply the weatherboards - what can penetrate that?
If you want to get truly pedantic use O rings as they do with roofing screws to stop the penetration of any finish.

The fibro is an excellent fire retardant so any heat from the room will only partially pass through the wall thus it'll act like a good insulator too

Hope this is a help