Another spoon, but this one is poorly made...

[tracker1972]

Absolutely nothing wrong with that result. You must keep it as you carve more, for history's sake.
Finish: lots of food-safe finishes.

I carved 70 spoons and 30 forks in birch and sold many of them. Did them up in batches of a dozen.
My finish uses Charles' Law in physics and a slathering of olive oil. That olive oil will go rancid in service is a myth.

Preheat your oven to 325F. Slather your spoon with any good vegetable oil. On a cake rack over a sheet pan,
into the oven for no more that 3 mins (for that size) by the clock. Out of the oven, you will see bubbles of heated
and expanded wood air in the oily surface. Let it cool, as the wood air cools and contracts, it sucks the oil into the wood.
Never to be disturbed again at any temp below 325F.

Well, finally made a few moments to have a go at getting some oil in... And properly over did it Doubt I have caused any problems but have certainly got some oil into the spoon.
Decided on walnut oil, it is in the shops and if it firms up and becomes more permanent, I like the idea. Anyhow, I warmed the oven, slathered on the oil and popped it in, bubbles appeared, took it out and it soaked up the oil like a sponge! And any more oil that rubbed over the end grain bits... Hmmmm, thought I. More oil? So without any thought or research I made up a bespoke tinfoil bath dropped in the spoon, filled it with walnut oil and repeated the process. This time leaving it to cool immersed in the oil. The waste was returned to the bottle, again without any consideration for consequence and I wiped it down with a bit of kitchen roll. (Don't think I will cook with it now though.)
I still have a spoon and yes humdrum_hostage, it does bring the grain up. Who knows if there was any point to what I did but hey, I enjoyed it
Before...

...and after...

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[forginhill]

I like the oil bath idea and I like the result!

 

[Robson Valley]

Deep-fried for 3:30 ought to be ideal. Still impatient enough to take them out to cool.
I've considered dabbing more oil on the end grain as the spoons/forks cooled but in service, it doesn't help at all.

The really important concept is this: You can stir boiling soup with that spoon and boiling isn't hot enough to leach out any of the oil.
A room-temp oil soak will all get blown out in boiling soup by the expanding wood air. Do that first!

 

[humdrum_hostage]

Use it! Its a spoon not an ornament!

 

[tracker1972]

Use it! Its a spoon not an ornament!

That made me chuckle I can assure you, it isn't nearly beautiful enough to be an ornament! I just want the chance to use it long enough to make another, for when this one meets it's maker somehow...

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[tracker1972]

Oh, now I've gone and done it! Was reading some carving sites, and stumbles across their "how to use walnut oil" bits and they suggested applying 2 or 3 times... Fair enough, and then leaving the article for 4-6 months, yes MONTHS before using!

Just tell me to ignore the nasty folk and get on with eating my lunch tomorrow! Thank you