Its been years since I took care of my wooden boards and utensils (bad me😔) so I decided this was the perfect day to get onto this task. Luckily I made heaps of wood butter several years ago and had lots lying around.
Wood butter is a mixture of wax and mineral oil melted together to produce a yummy-smelling, buttery paste that is food safe and you can use it on all your wooden items like cutting boards, utensils, butcher-block counters, anything you like. Just be aware that when you heat the items you may transfer some of the residual beeswax – but if you use a good quality beeswax it won’t really matter much as its such a tiny amount.
For those with kids, you can kill a good hour by handing them a paint brush and having them dip it in the wax and go at it! Just be sure to keep them from eating it. It works even better if you leave the jar of butter in a sunny window beforehand to help it flow nicely. Once they’re finished painting the butter all over your wood, take a scrap cloth and rub it all down to push it into the wood crevices and wipe on any excess. Easy peasy.
For instructions on how to make Wood Butter, pop over to one of my favorite blogs The Art of Doing Stuff that goes into it the process in great detail – it’s also an amazingly hilarious blog where you can learn many random things. If you’re having trouble figuring out what mineral oil to get, or if it’s appropriately food-grade, the easiest thing to do is to pick up a bottle at IKEA. Their SKYDD Wood Treatment Oil (i.e. mineral oil) is just $10 for 500ml and will go a long way! I also use it to ‘feed’ our small butcher-block window ledge in the kitchen once a year or so to keep it in good kip.
Although I’ve been behind on feeding my woods lately, my wood butter has kept them in great condition for several decades and hopefully many more to come. I highly recommend making extra butter if you dare to DIY it yourself. It doesn’t go bad and the extra jars make for lovely gifts to friends a family.
