I bought some reclaimed hardwood that looked a little red to make chopping boards etc. I made one chopping board and even after coarse sanding it was still red and went darker red with oil. I then made a spoon as I whittled it down I noticed the wood was lighter and oak. Did they used to use some kind of red treatment back in the day? And if so is it food safe? Thanks in advance if anyone can answer this.
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
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.
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.
In the dim, distant past I was the foreman at a sawmill and had to run the treatment plant amongst other jobs.
Miss pickle. Thanks for your research, you are good at this! I was hoping for it being red oak and the way the layers peel off looks like it could be. It's a really nice colour in red.
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.