Refinishing Wood with Mineral Oil

There is an abundance of practical wood items at thrift stores, often in rough shape. They are some of the cheapest used items I've seen!

We couldn't resist purchasing these utensils at the thrift store and trying our hand at restoring their beauty. I think I have mentioned before that Mr. SixBalloons loves restoring little vintage wood items. We found a honey dipper or drizzler, teak bottle opener, and a couple of spoons in pine and bamboo. That cute metal ice cream scoop made its way into the photo too, because of its nice ribbed handle.

The most expensive item above was the teak bottle opener at 50¢. I forgot to take a photo of the wood pieces before sanding but I'm sure you can imagine based on what you've seen in the wild. Simply using some rough grit sandpaper improved the look of these pieces significantly!

Applying food grade mineral oil on wood items in the kitchen is safe and effective. Apparently this is a good way to seal the wood from bacteria and moisture, while preserving its appearance. Using vegetable oil is not recommended, as it can go rancid.

Look at how rubbing mineral oil on the wood brings out a golden hue on the wood and reveals the grain beautifully! We let the oil absorb into the wood overnight and repeated a couple of times.

My best tip is to purchase "Heavy" Mineral Oil from a drugstore. This is safe for consumption and can be used on your kitchen goods. A similar product carried by my local Williams-Sonoma store in Vancouver is marketed towards kitchen cutting boards and utensils but was about four times the price!