I finished a bunch of cutlery handles with tung oil a bunch of years ago. I easily found a bottle of it at Lee Valley Tools. It was the polymerized type, which dried pretty quickly, comparable to oil paint or varnish. The finish was prety glossy. I just used a paper towel to apply several thin coats.

Can't a spatula be just untreated wood? Or some very light oiling just to reduce the absorption of food. And then solve the problem by disposing of them fairly often. They make a lot of heat in the fireplace since they've absorbed so much fat...

The solution is, use a metal spoon.

Wood is great for serving spoons, I have some fancy French ones, you just never dishwash and every few months wipe down with grapeseed or canola oil.

For eating? Wood just is not a good material.

Taking the advice of a pro at my local makerspace, I finished a cutting board with filtered ghee. Has been great so far without turning rancid as i thought it might

It should be noted that this article belongs to a series starting with "Woodworking as an escape from the absurdity of software" :-)

Russian wooden spoons, Khokhloma style in articular are pretty much food safe. One can find a finish recipe for those online.

This is great! I’m going to try the melting carnauba wax in tung oil one. I tried pure tung but it’s too matte for what I want.

I've been using pure walnut oil on wooden chopping boards. Anyone else had experience good/bad using walnut?

Thank you for selling your version online!