this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2025
33 points (94.6% liked)
Woodworking
6624 readers
5 users here now
A handmade home for woodworkers and admirers of woodworkers. Our community icon is submitted by @[email protected] whose father was inspired to start woodworking by Norm and the New Yankee Workshop.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
In my experience, products labeled "linseed oil" commonly have oil drying agents that you really don't want to be consuming. Tried & True specifically claims to be food safe, but not all linseed oils are. "Boiled linseed oil" is never food safe. "raw linseed oil" may or may not be.
"Flax seed oil" and "linseed oil" are the same thing, but flax seed oil is edible, and will not contain drying agents. If you're making your own finish, you might want to look for "flax seed" instead, or at least ensure the "linseed" oil is food safe.
One final note: If you're working with linseed oil, take special precautions with your rags. They can spontaneously combust. We had a mysterious fire overnight in a trash can in my shop that we couldn't immediately explain. A few days later, a discarded rag sitting on a workbench started putting out copious amounts of smoke while we were working on the other side of the shop, and we finally understood the trash can fire.