food-safe wood finish for DIY mash paddle?

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Why not just rub it down with some canola oil or let it remain unfinished?
 
Here's mine....

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100% completely stolen from someone else on HBT that was making them that way. Only difference was that I flipped the two-row pattern so it would get into the very bottom corners of the paddle.

I just sanded it down with the finest grit sand paper I could find and then didn't treat it with anything. It's maple.
 
Thanks, it was a quick effort, I was going to do something more stylized like Cape Brewing's paddle, but lack of a good cutting tool kept it simple.

Yah, The Monks Flemmish is great, especially for $3.99 a bottle.
 
If it's maple, it's safe to just leave it without a finish, although it may wear out faster.

I would not use a vegetable oil; it will go rancid over time.

Behlen's food safe finish is fine, as is salad bowl finish, but I don't know how well they stand up to heat. Mineral oil will work too. At the least, you could use one of those and just give it another application of oil a couple times a year.
 
I'm probably being WAY more paranoid then I should be but I was just really hestitant to put any oils in my mash by finishing my paddle. I didn't want anything leaching into my mash at all.

I figure if the mash paddle wears out faster... I'll just cut another one. The peice of maple was something like $6 and it took me less than an hour to cut it out and sand it down.
 
The peice of maple was something like $6 and it took me less than an hour to cut it out and sand it down.

I'm having trouble finding red maple around here. Home Depot doesn't carry it and Lowes' website says it's not stocked in any of the stores in my area. Am I looking in the wrong places?
 
I'm having trouble finding red maple around here. Home Depot doesn't carry it and Lowes' website says it's not stocked in any of the stores in my area. Am I looking in the wrong places?

The big box stores are a poor source for wood much above framing lumber and plywood. You may need to go somewhere that sells select furniture grade hardwood.

The manufactured paddles are pretty cheap too:

Cooking Paddles, Wooden Cooking Paddle
 
Look in those old fangled yellow pages for a lumberyard that sells hardwoods.

As a finish for wood the mineral oil sold as a laxative in most drug stores is a great sealer for woods in contact with food. You will need to put two to three coats on. Simply wipe it down, wait a few minuets and wipe off the excess and leave it to set for a day or two, then add the next coat. Leave it for a week or longer before you use it.
 
Why not just rub it down with some canola oil or let it remain unfinished?

Any food based oil will turn rancid and stink to high heaven.

Anyone ever heard of, or used this stuff before?

Behlen food-safe wood finish for salad bowls, etc.


My wife turns wood as a hobby (she is alot better at it then I am) and uses Behlan's Salad Bowl finish all the time for the bowls she turns. It is totally safe and does not effect the flavor of what we have eaten from her bowls. As for compatibility with beer, I can not say.
 
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