Red dye on reclaimed timber

Oooh what a fab idea making chopping boards!!! That's right up my street

Although I know nothing about oak

However there are red oak trees that are very common and often used for such things as furniture, interior design, flooring etc so I can't see that it would be toxic

Could just be the colour of the wood I will investigate

 

Apparently there are very few toxic woods out there. So that's a start

What oil are you using? Just for my own interest really for future reference.

If it HAS been treated then it will be highly toxic. So it definitely won't be food safe.

You need to be very certain it hasn't been treated

But how would we know for sure if it has or hasn't.

I will keep looking see if there is an answer

 

Ooh ooh oooh I'm excited for you

That's what happens with red oak! Its darker on the outside and gets gradually lighter as you work you way in

That's a good sign isn't it? It ties in with what you were saying

 

Sounds like it would have a greeny tinge to it if it had been treated. I think you would be able to tell.
If it were me I'd go for it and get busy making and selling.

Well, I would if I didn't spend half my life on the screwfix forum

 

Unfortunately, it would need to be checked professionally.
The red may be some treatment used to kill infections, who knows.
No good guessing when it comes to health and safety!

Mr. HandyAndy - Really

 

Wouldn't be scaremongering again would you Andy???

 

Can't be too careful.

Mr. HandyAndy - Really

 

It is highly unlikely that the oak has been treated with a CCA preservative as A. It doesn't need it and B. The cellular structure of hardwood doesn't allow the preservative to enter the timber. Oh and as was said earlier it would be green not red.

 

Some of the old wood treatments/ preservatives were cyanide based.

 

CCA is copper, chrome and arsenic. The copper and arsenic are for fungus and insect protection while the chrome is a fixative. They are tested so that no preservative will leach out and are left in a tub of termites, no termites can eat the timber but also no termites can die.
To pressure treat timber it is placed in a pressure tank and a vacuum is applied to open the cells, then the concentrated salts in liquid is pumped in and pressurised for for a certain length of time depending on the final use, after this it is drained and the amount of concentrate used is noted. A final vacuum is them applied so that when the timber is repressurised to atmospheric pressure any excess preservative is sucked back into the timber.
Because hardwood cells don't open up in a vacuum it is pointless putting them through this process and is also roughly why they don't need it anyway.

 

Chippie is becoming quite desirable
Excellent post

 

Brains as well as beauty bit like me
Watch out Phil

 

In the dim, distant past I was the foreman at a sawmill and had to run the treatment plant amongst other jobs.

 

Could you post a photo of the wood?

 

I think that I would bow to Chippies expert knowledge.....Even if he has worked on sites where blokes have carried pink drills !

 

He's the bosses son and he's about 6'7", he can have tools any colour he wants and he really likes pink.

 

The reason you can't get treatment into them is the same reason they don't need it, which is lucky.