Wood Butter

January 3, 2017 Reece Althoff

Wood butter making!

I initially stumbled across this on Instagram (@vigilantewoodworker – give him a look, he’s a talented woodworker) and thought I would take a stab at it. It is likely a deviation from the original recipe but this post goes over what I did to make my batch of wood butter.

What is it?
It’s a mixture of beeswax, mineral oil and vitamin E oil.

What’s it for?
A natural finish for wood that is (should be) food safe. Should be able to use on items such as cutting boards, butcher blocks, etc. I will probably use it as a quick finish on basic projects.

How I did it:

Step 1: Gather Ingredients – here is what I used on this batch:

3/4 cups of beeswax (I got mine here http://amzn.to/2j79nzX)
5 tablespoons of mineral oil (Walmart brand is dirt cheap)
1/2 teaspoons of vitamin E oil (optional, it’s what I saw being used by @vigilantewoodworker )
1 8oz. short wide mouth mason jar (this is similar to what I used http://amzn.to/2iGxNj5)

@VigilanteWoodworker used a different mix of about 5 oz of mineral oil and 1-2 oz of beeswax. I wanted to experiment and try a different mixture. In the words of David Picciuto – “We’re just having fun.”

Step 2: Setup double boiler with a sauce pan and mason jar.

Step 3: Add in beeswax and Oil. The beeswax will take up less volume after melting down, and you can add as needed.

Step 4: Get water to 180 degrees and try to maintain that temperature.

Step 5: Completely melt beeswax and stir. Once you have enough melted, remove from heat and allow to cool.

That’s it!

You can test the consistency of the mix by pulling the stir stick out and letting the mixture cool on it. Then you can adjust to your liking without constantly cooling and reheating the whole batch. Next time, I might use a higher ratio of mineral oil to beeswax.

Let me know in the comments if you try it and how it works out for you.

Cheers,
Reece

UPDATE:

I made a short video (which is on YouTube) on making this, and I used a mix of about 2.5 ounces of beeswax, 8 fl. oz. of mineral oil, and a dash of Vitamin E oil.