Making My Wood Conditioner!

I spent a couple hours this afternoon making my Wood Conditioner today because I only had a few tins available. If you are not familiar with my Wood Conditioner, when used on your wood cutting board, wood utensils or anything wood it will penetrate and helps to revive, condition and protect it. I also use it on my cast iron pans for conditioning. Read more about my Wood Conditioner!

My Wood Conditioner is made using 100% food grade mineral oil and 100% food grade beeswax.

I have a label on the lid detailing how to use the Wood Conditioner. 

Tins ready to fill, I use the syringe to fill each tin, it makes for easy work and clean up too! Each tin will be filled with my Food Grade Mineral oil and Food Grade Beeswax mixture. It will be hot but once cooled becomes solid.

Once the tins are filled, it takes about an hour for the Wood Conditioner to cool and harden. Above are three tins that were filled at different times, the one in the middle has not cooled and gotten solid just yet.

They are all done, cooled, labeled and ready!

For more information, view more images or to order, click the SHOP NOW button below

Beautiful Sunset

Another beautiful sunset!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day!

 

 

Siebold Elegans Hostas

 

This is a beautiful grouping of Siebold Elegans Hosta that I spotted today at Furman University. It was the best day ever for photography, 70 degrees, light breeze and sunshine.

My daughter Lauren is getting married in June and today was her day for wedding dress pictures. She is so beautiful in her dress! Our first stop was Furman University, pictures among the huge 100 year old growth oak trees, then in front of the fountains, then the Rose garden!  When the photographer was done, he had taken over 1200 photos, I took over 150.

These hosta were growing under the huge old growth oak trees, aren’t they beautiful!!!

 

 

 

Black Cherry Burl Slab

A good customer called me a few weeks ago and described to me a new board that he wanted. He first said he wanted a unique board for his food photography, a board that no one else had, something really special and beautiful. Bob has ordered several times from me, so I knew as he described the board he was passionate about his food photography and his cooking. Bob is a wonderful chef and he post his food photography on his Instagram page, That_Paleo_Guy  

Before we hung up, my mission was to locate potential boards, take pictures and email to him. It wasn’t long before he had picked out the American Black Cherry Burl. This piece is a slab, live each with thick bark on all sides, which is exactly what Bob wanted.

After flattening and all the sanding, I applied half of the board with food grade mineral oil so that you could see the beautiful color transformation as the finish is applied.

The pictures I sent Bob was unfinished but you could tell that the Cherry Burl slab had really beautiful birds eye figuring with crazy grain and beautiful buttery colors. This board has more character than most pieces, it is absolutely beautiful!

The above shows the finish board after I removed it from the food grade mineral oil bath. Once dried I applied my Wood Conditioner.

 

The photo below was taken by Bob last week!!!

 

 

 

 

Maple & Paduak

 

I started two end grain cutting boards last week, One was Maple and Cherry (left), the other was Maple and Pakauk (right). Paduak is an orange-red color wood from South America.

The Maple and Paduak boards is to the right, first glue-up. In this post I am going to show you the finishing process of the Maple and Padauk end grain board.

The above picture shows the second glue-up for the final pattern.  It’s dry  and ready to go to the Jet belt sander to get it flat on both sides. This board will finish out at 10 inches wide, 16 inches long and 2 inches thick. Once flat I sanded all sides from 120 grit up to 600 grit.

What looks like water is food grade mineral oil. After being in the food grade mineral oil bath for over an hour I removed it to let it air dry. I will let it dry over night before wiping it down with a cotton cloth.

Another view of this board that shows the finger pull, I cut one on each side to make it easier to lift. This board was finished with  food grade mineral oil, then my wood conditioner that is a food grade mineral oil and food grade beeswax mixture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black Walnut Rounds

This afternoon a good friend and I cut 2 foot off of a Black Walnut log that is 17 inches in diameter and cut 10 Walnut rounds. Each round was cut 2-1/4 inch thick.

I will store these in my shop, stacked with wooden spacers between each piece so that air is able to pass between them. I will rotate them serveral times a month until they are dry. Drying could take a long a 6 to 10 months.

The color looks great on these and as they dry they will darken.

They will make great cutting boards, serving boards, cheese boards or plate chargers! These will be available on my One of a Kind page once they are dry.  Below is a picture that shows how these can be used to serve your favorite food!

I hope you enjoy your weekend!

For more information, view more images, pricing or to order, click SHOP NOW

The above photo was taken by Bob Bernotsky at That_Paleo_Guy

 

 

Madame Isaac Periere

Madame Isaac Periere is a bourbon rose and is well known for it’s wonderful fragrance.  It was named after the wife of a French banker, Madame Isaac Pereire. It has fat, cabbagey flowers and has perhaps the strongest deep rose perfume of all roses.

I have two Madame Isaac Periere growing on the fence, both are about the same size and both are filled with roses. They are very beautiful and the fragrance is wonderful. If you would like to grow  fragrant rose, this is the one to grow. Very easy to grow and it  blooms twice a year!

Each morning for the past week, I  have cut roses and placed in vases for our kitchen, den and bedroom! After 10 minutes the rooms are filled with their  perfume!!! 🙂 My wife loves this rose!

 

The  photo below was taken by Bob Bernotsky, one of two boards I made Bob. Check out his Instagram page, he is a wonderful cook and into the Paleo food; @That_Paleo_Guy

Blue Flag Iris

This is Iris versicolor, it has many names, also commonly known as the ‘Blue flag’, ‘Harlequin Blueflag’, ‘Larger Blue Flag’, ‘Northern Blue Flag’, and ‘Poison Flag’.

I planted hundreds of these two years ago and finally this year they are really beautiful! From the looks of it I will be thinning these out at the end of summer. Do you grow this iris in your garden?

Enjoy your weekend!

The Land & Water Co. has posted the picture of Chef Ruiz food presented on one of my Walnut cutting boards on their website, photo credit is Carolyn Himes!!