Using flax oil as a finsh for a cutting board?

[Danzn Bar]

I use Olive Oil on My cast Iron cookware with no problem. Bob

Extra virgin olive oil is great for cast iron cookware.  when is gets hot around 400 deg it reaches it's smoke point and makes a non stick surface.   I love to cook over a camp fire with cast iron.

Good to know, thanks. Do you just coat the stuff lightly? By the way, does the raw flaxseed/linseed oil have as much of a spontaneous combustion problem as normal boiled linseed oil?

toomany, 
Don't know much about flaxseed/linseed but.......... coat your warm cast iron with EVOO put it in a 400 or even better 450 deg oven for about 1 hour, let cool to touch and repeat.  just real thin coats each time. makes a great non stick surface.  yum
DBar

[JW_Halverson]

You may want to re-visit your choice of hardwood for a cutting board.  Something like hickory with it's open grain will suck liquids and bacteria deep into the wood.  Closed grain like maple is much better for the job.  Professional grade butcher blocks are almost always made from maple. 

Funny, all these years later and the advent of plastic cutting boards they find out that plastic carries e.coli nicely, but wood has compounds that kill e-coli!  Bwaaahahaha!  Primitive materials rule!

[bow101]

Mineral oil.....I think is the best for cutting boards.  I'm not sure but Olive oil might go rancid after a period of time. I know vegetable oil will.
DBar

Another good one is Walnut oil, a little pricey though.

[soy]

You may want to re-visit your choice of hardwood for a cutting board.  Something like hickory with it's open grain will suck liquids and bacteria deep into the wood.  Closed grain like maple is much better for the job.  Professional grade butcher blocks are almost always made from maple. 

Funny, all these years later and the advent of plastic cutting boards they find out that plastic carries e.coli nicely, but wood has compounds that kill e-coli!  Bwaaahahaha!  Primitive materials rule!

So would that land cherry and Ironwood also as good woods to use?

[stickbender]

     Olive oil doesn't do well at high temps like for frying.  Coconut oil has a very high heat tolerance.  Get the pure organic, and not the hydrogenated, or steam processed oil.  Get the cold pressed.  It is also capable of being used in machinery!   Stay away from Palm oil, it comes from the Betal nut palm, also known as the Arica palm.  It is a known carcinogen.  Nothing like a good, and well seasoned cast iron pot!  I cook only with cast iron, as first choice, and glass as second, and stainless as third, and porcelain as a fourth.  Absolutely no non stick coatings, or aluminum!  A lot of people have a little 24 hour virus, that is actually Teflon poisoning!  Aluminum is as bad or worse than mercury.  In the early seventies, they found the majority of Alzheimer patients had a high level of aluminum in their blood, and then the sales of aluminum products plummeted, and as usual, the people forgot in a few years, aluminum is back as strong as ever.  Think about it.  Aluminum conducts electricity, and in your blood stream, in your brain, it plays hell with the neurons, and elsewhere in the body.  They are even using it in the flu shots, and shots for infants!  The majority of those vaccines are banned in Europe.  I always check the labels on pickle and relish jars, if it has Alum ( Aluminum Sulfate) I leave it on the shelf.  Anyway, I would go with the mineral oil,or butcher block oil, etc.  Just my opinion.  I always, wash my little wood cutting block, after each use, with hot water, and then lightly wipe it with water and bleach, after that.  Enjoy your cutting block. ( Use laxative grade mineral oil)  Boy this Venison is delic, where's your bathroom?!!!

                                                                     Wayne