Child friendly finish

**Lee roy** · 6th July 2013, 09:43 AM

About to finish a small animal train for my son from the great book of wooden toys. Needs a bit more sanding of course!
I was wondering what finish might be best considering these will be used and no doubt chewed on by my little one (6 months and EVERYTHING ends up in his gob and one stage or another)
I was considering some EEE and then traditional wax, but I thought it might get a bit 'too' shiney with the EEE and it may not be good health wise.
I know the traditional wax is ok and is foodsafe, but chewing on a whole piece of timber with it?

Other q I had was what I should be using to join the train together? The book used plain hooks, but I am reluctant to use these due to my sons age and poking his eye with them. I had used some small magnets at one stage but they were so powerfull the train stayed rigidly straight and was quite difficult to pull apart. I had a thought of some less powerful half dome style magnets, but I've been unable to find any even on ebay.

Any suggestions welcome

**Cliff Rogers** · 6th July 2013, 10:08 AM

FoodSafe Plus

**crowie** · 6th July 2013, 03:50 PM

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

FoodSafe Plus

Looks like a top product...well done Cliff...

G'Day Lee Roy,
What a "ubeaut" toy you've made for your son; should have displayed it in the toy making section...Looks great.
I've used "eye's" as the connections for a train I made, rather than hooks.
Glued them in with one end opened up slightly but facing down; the other horizontal & closed.
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ompatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]-->They are about a 2-2.5mm brass wire material and have been okay thus far.
I hope that's some help.
Cheers, crowie

**Lee roy** · 6th July 2013, 07:58 PM

Thanks crowie,

on closer inspection of the book I think they had the same idea as you by using ones closed up and just 'tweaking' to allow them to detach.

Thanks for the responses guys.

**ubeaut** · 7th July 2013, 10:51 PM

Foofsafe is fine. My choice would be white shellac or for a bit more warmth of colour ordinary shellac (French Polish).

Traditional is safe, but most waxes are impractical as they will mark up with moisture, sucking, etc.

**Toymaker Len** · 7th July 2013, 11:16 PM

We used oil finishes on our toys. Basically tung oil thinned with vegetable turps. But what about stimulate all the senses at once. Lets see... Turmuric powder for yellow under mustard oil (don't worry its not hot just aromatic) and for red you could go sweet paprica under tomato oil. Green is easy just parsley oil. Blue I don't know, maybe powdered dried blueberries under some kind of neutral oil like cottonseed.
But seriously if you do use an oil finish just put it on very sparingly and then buff it off ten minutes later, same with wax. Then take some good photos because no matter how good your finish by this time next year it'll be chewed and pounded and rubbed through puddles and that is the fate of toys.
Nice work by the way.

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