WoodTurners Forum

Looking for suggestions for brand of Walnut Oil for wood finishing that is food safe. Thank you in advance!

You can get walnut oil at WalMart. You can find it in the area with other cooking oils. All 100% walnut oil will be food safe as it is used in cooking.

You can get walnut oil at WalMart. You can find it in the area with other cooking oils. All 100% walnut oil will be food safe as it is used in cooking.

Salad/cooking walnut oils do go bad/rancid. A cursory search on oil shelf life will show 6-12 months viability. If you want to use walnut oils on turnings you should stick to the two brands readily available and marketed for this specific use: Dr's Woodshop and Mahony's.

Just to further the info already given,

The walnut oil in the grocery store is cold pressed. They can be used for cooking and for salad dressings. They are food safe, but for folks with tree nut allergies, these oils will cause allergic reactions.

On the other hand, Dr’s and Mahoney’s Walnut Finishing Oils have been cold pressed, but then the oil is heated in a process that kills the proteins that cause allergic reactions. Further, after the heating process, the oil is then filtered to remove those dead proteins. Because of this filtering, the oil is cleaner on the wood surface and is what I would call hypoallergenic. I asked Mahoney why the oil isn’t labeled as non-alergenic. His response was the cost of testing and licensing. It is a lot of money.