Butchers Block Conditioner

[Eddie Mullins]

I picked up some Trewax recently, but not certain it is 100% carnauba and food safe, if some one has info that is please share. So I started looking for food grade carnauba wax and stumbled onto butchers block conditioners which are a mix of carnauba, bees wax and mineral oil. I have seen pastes and even in a squirts bottle. Seems to be an easy application with good potential for a metal finish. Also likely easier for customers to use later rather than a solid paste.

Almost seems to good to be true. Has any one used this?

[ThomasPowers]

Sounds like a non-drying formula

[Frosty]

Is it Trewax Clear Paste? There will be an ingredient list on the can showing what's in it.

I couldn't find anything online about Trewax other than the (Beaumont?) home page saying it was non-toxic on all surfaces.

The can I have has got to be 30 years old and still half full. I've used it on eating utensils a long time and never heard of a problem. That is anecdotal and worth what you paid. Looking into the Brazilian palm wax (carnuba) shows one of it's most common industrial uses is as a coating for pills. You can buy it in granular natural form and apply it to hot pieces to melt it on.

I'm afraid that's about what I know about Trewax and carnuba.

Frosty The Lucky.

[matto]

I heat utensils to about 160 and then soak in olive oil.  Or wipe with olive oil then bake then wipe.

[ThomasPowers]

160 C or F or K? (I hear it gets chilly in Nebraska...)

[Frosty]

160 C or F or K? (I hear it gets chilly in Nebraska...)

If we're talking Chili wouldn't that be the Scolville scale? Of course 160 on the S scale would be pretty mild.

Reminds me of a TV weather guesser a couple winters back that kept talking about how our lows weren't getting into the sub zero Kelvin average temps like normal years. The folk at the studio let him go on like that for quite a while then one day he wasn't doing weather.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Eddie Mullins]

Sounds like a non-drying formula

Not sure what you mean by this. I would think it would perform as well or better than the beeswax and BLO mixtures. I expect it might be less tacky depending on the bees wax proportion of the mix.

Is it Trewax Clear Paste? There will be an ingredient list on the can showing what's in it.

I couldn't find anything online about Trewax other than the (Beaumont?) home page saying it was non-toxic on all surfaces.

The can I have has got to be 30 years old and still half full. I've used it on eating utensils a long time and never heard of a problem. That is anecdotal and worth what you paid. Looking into the Brazilian palm wax (carnuba) shows one of it's most common industrial uses is as a coating for pills. You can buy it in granular natural form and apply it to hot pieces to melt it on.

I'm afraid that's about what I know about Trewax and carnuba.

Frosty The Lucky.

Yes, it was the Clear Paste. It states that it is made with carnauba, or similar verbiage, but does not explicitly say its 100% or have an ingredient statement I could find.

[Frosty]

Neither mineral oil nor beeswax harden so the finish should stay soft.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Frosty]

Yes, it was the Clear Paste. It states that it is made with carnauba, or similar verbiage, but does not explicitly say its 100% or have an ingredient statement I could find.

Well, to be paste wax it has to have a volatile solvent. The solvent evaporates out because Trewax hardens it will in fact chip if you leave say a drip. It's VERY hard wax.

It's furniture and floor polish so I don't know if I'd expect them to say explicitly what's in it. The company site says it's non-toxic and recommends it for wood, stone and just about any counter tops, stoves, fridges, etc. but that's all I know. It's marketing but if they were lying litigation would eat them up.

You might try contacting the company and asking. I think that's the only way you're going to get info you can take to the bank.

Another thought is to contact a restaurant supply and ask what they recommend for long term cures on ironwork. Or whatever it is you have in mind.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Eddie Mullins]

Well, to be paste wax it has to have a volatile solvent. The solvent evaporates out because Trewax hardens it will in fact chip if you leave say a drip. It's VERY hard wax.

It's furniture and floor polish so I don't know if I'd expect them to say explicitly what's in it. The company site says it's non-toxic and recommends it for wood, stone and just about any counter tops, stoves, fridges, etc. but that's all I know. It's marketing but if they were lying litigation would eat them up.

You might try contacting the company and asking. I think that's the only way you're going to get info you can take to the bank.

Another thought is to contact a restaurant supply and ask what they recommend for long term cures on ironwork. Or whatever it is you have in mind.

Frosty The Lucky.

Here are a couple of responses from trewax to others in regards to food sage use - its not recommended. My guess is the problem is the solvents used to keep it soft. I believe this is probably the reason why the butchers block products use food safe mineral oil instead to maintain the desired consistency.

**************************

The Trewax Paste Wax is made up of Brazilian Carnauba Wax, it is the Worlds hardest natural wax, and will provide a hard long wearing finish that will help protect the table from stains, I would recommended using at least 3 thin coats for the best protection. Keep in mind- this is not considered food safe so do not put food directly on the table.

Please contact Customer Service at customerservice@beaumontproducts if you have any further questions.

-Trewax Customer Service

 

************************

Trewax Paste Wax can be used on soapstone. However, Trewax Paste Wax is not considered a food grade item, therefore it is generally not recommended for countertops.

[Charles R. Stevens]

The old standby for cutingboards is food safe mineral oil, most drug stores cary it. It is esentualy baby oil with out the perfume. My counters are made from wide oak flooring and soked in the stuff. 

[Charlotte]

mineral oil for wood used with food.   Flax seed oil for food safe hot finish (aka linseed oil but FDA safe).  the difference is in the chemicals used in processing and control

not recommendation  just the rule I follow.

[HWooldridge]

I used to spray all cooking utensils with a good coating of Pam spray.  I would sandblast the item, then heat just below scale temp and apply the Pam when it had cooled to where the oil smoked, similar to a cast iron frying pan - no burnt carbon; just a nice dark coating.  I would also tell my customers to wash the item in plain water, dry immediately, then apply another coat of Pam.  I figured people can always find some cooking oil and easily follow the routine.

Edited August 28, 2015 by HWooldridge
Grammar

[Kozzy]

Carnauba is not the problem...it's the solvents used to make it spreadable.  You could make your own food safe paste wax pretty easily using carnauba and the proper oil as a softener.  Most likely choice for the solvent oil would be mineral oil as it does "dry" when the volatiles evaporate.  Carnauba is a common ingredient in cosmetics and even some foods (it's just a palm wax)

Typical process would be to melt some wax in a heat proof container...then you trickle (TRICKLE!) in your oil while stirring.  Depending on the results you want, you can either do a best guess on oil amount and keep stirring (off heat) until it thickens or you can go further and make lotion:  That would have a lot of oil and when cool enough, you use a stick blender to whip in air.  The "lotion" will take a little longer to harden but will go on really nice and the coating will be barely perceptable.   While you're at it, make some hand lotion for your wife using bees wax and olive oil..plus a little fragrance.  She'll think you are a genius.

For temporary rust protection on things that will never see paint, the standard food-grade coating is a mix of silicone and mineral oil.  This wipes on thin and dries almost immediately--giving about a year's worth of average protection on something like a ground cast-iron machine table.  You can drink it too if you need a good internal cleaning (that's a joke, son)

Amazon has a couple of sources for pure carnauba wax.

[Frosty]

If the company says it's not food grade then Trewax is out. Darn, now I'll have to find something else too. It's better to know than only think a thing.

Frosty The Lucky.

[gote]

It all depends upon what is meant by food safe. Does it mean that it is dangerous in contact with food or that it has not been extensively tested or that the company does not like nuisance suits or that if you eat more than a pound of it you will get sick?

If the surface is hard it will not give off much. A coat on steel cannot not give off much since there is so little substance. There are hardly any poisons around potent enough to cause any damage in a situation like this. I think that it boils down to that the supplier has not tested and thus cannot issue an affidavit saying that it is safe.

I am probably only making you frustrated. Welcome aboard. I am frustrated. Many things that we have done since medieval times are now considered unsafe. Maybe they really are unsafe. Very few people have survived since medieval times..

Göte

 

[Frosty]

Oh come on Gote we're just very safety conscious here in the States. So safety conscious in fact the Gvt. won't allow red die #5 (I think) to be used in rat poison because it was shown to cause cancer.

No fooling, no wonder companies refuse to say something probably harmless isn't food safe. If the FDA had it's way nothing would be safe. I just hope they don't discover how many people "dihydrogen oxide" kills every year.

Frosty The Lucky.

[notownkid]

Wait a minute, the FDA has to approve all drugs as being safe!  Yet a yr. or so later warnings are issued on side effects of these drugs and a week later Lawyer Ads looking for clients to get in on class actions to receive money from using these safe drugs.  If these people had any idea of what they were talking about they would be in the private sector making big $.  There should be a warning on the FDA, it causes headaches, chest pains, hard to set from being a pain in the butt, bleared vision and hearing lose.

One of the 3 biggest lies is "We are from the Federal government we are here to help."

[Charles R. Stevens]

The FDA certainly isnt perfect, its subject to politics and loby like all of our goverment. But, as it comes to drugs and food additives I think the big issue is how testing is peformed. It is performed by "independent labs" hired by the companies concerned. Certainly a conflict of interest. If the company dosnt get the result they want they most likely wont use that lab again. See the same thing in disability determination. The state sends you to a "indopendant" physician, and despite the fact that 3 others have diagnosed you as disabled do to illness or being hurt this one finds nothing wrong. Nothing to do with the fact that 80% of his practice is subing iut to the state office of disability....

I tend to trust the EU a bit more as the buisness still pays for the testing but the EU versian of the FDA hires them    

[IanJ]

Frosty, I think you mean Dihydrogen Monoxide.  There's even a website warning of its dangers: http://www.dhmo.org/

[Frosty]

Nope, I try not to use unnecessary fixes, pre or suf.  The authors of this link add Mon to Oxide to give it a more official sciency sound where in reality Oxide is the singular. Of course I COULD be full of it, the chemistry teacher that made such a point of it was in the late '60s when I was in high school.

It's a FUN site though I would've linked it in my post if I could've found it. Bad memory don't you know.

Frosty The Lucky.

[IanJ]

I mostly call it dihydrogen monoxide so I can remember the name of the website.  Of course it's called monoxide to sound more sciencey, and also put people in mind of carbon monoxide, which most will at least associate negatively, even if they're not sure why.

[Frosty]

Hmmmm, good point I don't even think about calling CO a Carbon Monoxide. Maybe I'm just over sensitized by the common attempts to sound learned by making up words. Not that all words aren't made up but SHEESH! I don't recall when someone on TV thought calling something really BIG, "Massive" sounded good, now everybody is calling big things "massive." It's a complete misuse of the term.

Or how about, "religiOSITY" for an obscene bit of rhetorical nonsense? Of course a politician can't use the term "faith" it probably sounds too . . . positive?

Then there's adding the suffix "ate" to words, one that's become a "normal" part of the language is "comentator" a word with two suffixes? I believe the word "comenter" just isn't pretentious enough for news talkers, heck spell check hates it. And which talking head was ending his broadcasts by pronouncing courage, "courahe" till someone, probably a producer pointed out he sounded like a fool?

Sorry, I get going on some of the sillier uses of the language too easily. The fellow who helped us build the house was always saying, "applicate" no matter how often I said apply. It got to be an unkind game with Deb and I to add ate to everything then tacking on more suffixes. We were inspired by his frequent  applicating material to the house.

I should talk, I often invent a term to cover something if I can't think of the word and point out it's a living language, all's fair. I TRY to follow the rules though, maybe I should get a copy.

Frosty The Lucky.

[gote]

 

Frosty, If you use longer words you have more time to think about what you are trying to say. It is instead of saying eeeeeeeerh, Hmmmmmmm and so on.

 

We have had cases in Sweden of women drinking so much H2O that it killed them. They believed that it was good for health. Flushing out toxins. Nobody told them that already ancient Greeks knew that the poison is in the dosage.

 

Vatten är ett farligt gift.

Omger hela visby stift.

 

Does not tranlslate well: Water is a dangerous poison that surrounds all the island of Gotland.

[Frosty]

Ehhh Hemmmmmm Gote, are you trying to say something here? . . . Hmmmmmm? Place holders to give a person to come up with a stupider way of saying the blatantly obvious like it's a revelation.

Dad called that water poisoning, folk would get thirsty and drink way too much water. The official term is "electrolyte imbalance." You really need to keep the chemicals in your body juices right, too diluted and bye bye. Clever people the ancient Greeks, knew the world was round too.

"Water water everywhere and not any drop to drink," Samuel T Coleridge. I had to Google it for the author and correct quote. I knew the common repeat was off the mark by a word or two but it's off by a few lines. Oh well, learn something every day. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.