Developing a food-safe finish for my wooden spoons

Posted by alin23 12/10/2025

Developing a food-safe finish for my wooden spoons(alinpanaitiu.com)

225 points | 150 commentspage 4

ErroneousBosh 12/15/2025||

Wooden spoons are inherently food-safe. Do not put any coating on them.

coryrc 12/14/2025||

Dude already found the perfect thing, but wanted an excuse to play with random metallic driers and resins instead. Fine, but don't pretend it was necessary.

   But it’s really hard to mix properly and apply on small wooden objects like spoons and cups. I almost always use too much accelerator,

Just use a precision scale. Pharmacists give me side-eye when I mention cutting my medicine. No, I do small-scale epoxy mixing!

alin23 12/15/2025||

Author here, it's not that it's not possible, it's just annoying to do. Indeed, two-component hardwax oils are close to perfect (although the resulting polymer is not ideal), but having to do the precise pouring and mixing, and trying to smear that thick blend onto the wood, hundreds and hundreds of times, is not something I want to do.

I want to enjoy the process of making the wooden utensil as much as I want to see the end result, hence my excuse to play with random metallic driers and resins.

Rebelgecko 12/14/2025|||

I have only used Rubio once and didn't bother with accelerant at all. For my use case it worked out fine. Although it's the only time I've done any sort of wood finishing so take it with a grain of salt.

kurthr 12/14/2025||

You're apparently referring to Rubio Monocoat.

_ZeD_ 12/15/2025||

What's wrong with metal spoons?

alin23 12/15/2025|

Nothing, I'm just not a metal worker.

bythreads 12/14/2025||

Check out volvox and auro products

Works well for me

dspillett 12/14/2025|

Interesting, I'll have to give that a detailed read later. It might be applicable to 3D prints.

To head off the people who will jump up-and-down calling me paranoid for not considering untreated printed works food safe, and accusing me of accusing them of poisoning family & friends (in some circles the discussion can get more cantankerous than the vi/emacs thing!): you keep using printed things for food without treatment if you like, and I won't judge, but I prefer to remain paranoid because if printed items were food safe it would be a selling point and I don't see any manufacturers using food based examples in their advertising.

Aurornis 12/14/2025|

> To head off the people who will jump up-and-down calling me paranoid for not considering untreated printed works food safe,

I’ve been involved with consumer 3D printing for over a decade and I don’t recall ever seeing a conversation where anyone suggested 3D printer parts were default food safe. It’s one of the more common FAQs you see on 3D printing forums.

dspillett 12/14/2025||

I'm obviously in the wrong groups on facebook.

Oh, there is some passion the other way.

I'm happy that the down-vote-y anger here is on the correct side! (unless you are the only one who agrees and the other downs are from the “how dare you suggest I might do something wrong” mob)