Natural Coconut Oil Wood Restorer

I am always keen to try something new especially if I can make it myself without too much difficulty.  I frequently browse Pinterest when I have a few moments and there items I have always wanted to have a go at.  When the pennies are sparse I tend to tighten the purse strings.  However, for this particular project, I already had everything on the Pantry shelf!  I also really needed to do something about my wooden cutting boards.  Some of which I have had about 40 years and which have been showing their age.  I have been wanting to try this particular recipe which I found online which was published by OneCrazyhouse.com. and which I located via Pinterest.

Link is here:

Coconut and Lemon Oil Wood Restorer

Please check out the link for full details of how to make this, how to use this, why Coconut oil had been used in preference to other oils and how to use it on other items.   A very useful resource.

I have just made this for my own use, but thought I would share a post on this just in case you wanted to have a go at this for yourselves.  I am quite taken with it as it is not complicated to make, uses  up items that  you may well have on your Pantry shelf and is sustainable.  It is not an aerosol can polish, just a traditional pot polish.  I take the view at the moment that anything that will help keep my boards going is worth a little effort.

It contains only two natural ingredients which for me is a win-win situation.  Basically I wanted something that would help with my cutting boards to try and get them back into some sort of condition after they had been cleaned.  OH tends to bung them in the sink which is not good for them, and I have had to resort to telling him not to put them  in said sink but on the side and I will deal with them.  Hence my working boards are very long suffering.

The result of mishandling is that the boards have been a bit battered over the years, however they still have a lot of life left in them, especially bearing in mind the price of new cutting boards etc. in the shops at the moment.  I particularly like the Emma Bridgewater cutting boards!  However, they cost an arm and a leg and I do not stand a chance of owning any at the present.

One of the boards in particular I have had over 40 years. It was bought for me by a much loved Aunt and Uncle and is a piece of Teak. (Said Uncle was a Master Cabinet Maker).  It has been scorched (by putting too near to a gas burner whilst cooking something else very accidentally) and I know I will never get rid of those burns.  I just cannot bring myself to get rid of it, as it is a very useful board. However the board has darkened where things got a little hot. Some of the colour has gone- leeched out of the board as well and so I have hopes that this will help it retrieve back some of its colour.

As I had both of the ingredients to hand, I decided to give this a bit of a whirl and make it.

Ratio of 2 parts Coconut oil to 1 part Lemon juice.

i.e. I used 250ml of Coconut oil and 84ml of Lemon juice for my attempt.    

You then whip it up in a bowl with a fork or a whisk (I used a Balloon whisk).  My oil had been melted by the Sun (I had parked it on a windowsill outside as it was in a medium sized bottle and had set and there was no way that I would have got it out the bottle otherwise.  When I started working with the oil and the lemon juice, the oil was clear but as I started working it the oil went a creamy colour; when it goes like this, it is more or less ready. I then decanted it into a recycled Salsa jar to let it set.  It does not look as though it is going to set at all, but I left it in the kitchen for about an hour.

When I came back to it, it had set.  I checked the jar first and there was a little left over in my bowl, and so I used that to start on the boards with; just rubbing some of the polish with a soft cloth into the board following the grain of the wood.  You only need the tiniest bit of polish, I think perhaps I used a little too much to start with so please bear that in mind when you start using it.

Here are photos of my two of my cutting boards.

Before treatment:

First Board

Front

Back

After the first coat:

The colour is slightly better than it was, but it is a board that is in need of much nourishment.  I intend to work on this for a few days to see if further coats will help bring it up a bit more.  The board has not been polished just wiped off.

And after a week of using:

Well the board seems to be darkening a lot in colour.  I have buffed it up but it does not seem to be getting that shine you would expect after buffing up something to polish it, so I think I am going to give it a rain check on the furniture just yet.  It is ideal for my working boards though and although it is rather later in the day something is better than nothing.  I will know for the future.  I also intend to give my wooden spoons a coating of this as well.  Yes I still have wooden spoons.

The Second Board which is much newer

Before

After the Polish has gone on.

This "polish" is also supposed to be good for wooden furniture as well.  Will probably try this on one of my Dressers to see how it comes up now I am happy with the cutting boards.  My boards are well battered, and probably not the best example to show this polish to its full effect.  It has helped the boards though which is what I set out to do in the first place.

I just love doing stuff like this and the best part, is it is something useful that you have made yourself to keep your home items in good condition and using all natural ingredients that do not cost an arm and a leg to make.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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