Butter Knife

[Janne]

TLM, I have tried to self combust cotton rags + flax oil, Cotton fiber + flax oil. Even blew some pure O2 on.
Did not make it burn.
Then I applied a spark from an( empty of gas) BIC lighter. Together with the O2 gas - spectacular!
Almost as nice as placing a tea candle behind a Gasol bottle and then persuading a FMJ .357 Mag through it.

 

[TLM]

Applying the 357 solution to any problem like that tends to produce satisfying results.

 

[Janne]

We did a lot of cr@p like that. Once we ended up in a left wing newspaper, front page.
Aaah, the teenage years!

Today, I am just happy sitting under a mango tree, polishing bits of metal to my binoculars, or working with wood.
With a cup of Decaf coffee.....

@Kepis , I will copy that design of the Butter knife, if it is OK?

But will make it in juniper.

I like butter, but I guess it is only a matter of time before the Dr tells me to cut it out and start spreading some chemistry on the bread!

 

[Tiley]

I do like that design. It bears more than a passing resemblance to the spreaders in Wille Sundqvist's "Swedish Carving Techniques" book. The octagonal handle shape is excellent.

Ignore the medics! Don't put chemical slime on your bread - simply because butter tastes so much better!

 

[Muddypaws]

That is a nicely designed spreading tool. For some reason I want to make a similarly shaped knife out of tool steel - it would be a handy workshop marking knife.

 

[Nice65]

That is a nicely designed spreading tool. For some reason I want to make a similarly shaped knife out of tool steel - it would be a handy workshop marking knife.

A kiridashi. I have, or maybe had, one almost identical to the spreader. It was made by Stew on here. I’ll have a look and see if I still have it.

 

[plastic-ninja]

Basically we use it on wood that we don't mind being sticky for a while or for making up pigment paints.....and you have to be really, really careful of any rag you use it on. It's inclined to the spontaneous combustion as it oxidises. Basically you have to leave the rags opened up because otherwise exothermic reaction will cause fire.

Interesting; I never knew that. I dread to think of the risks I took with rags after oiling my cricket bat(s) back in the days when they didn't have a polymer coating. Pretty sure we used to just drop them in the bin with other combustibles!!

 

[plastic-ninja]

I made this butter knife a while ago to spread some paté while I was out for a walk.
It was made from holly : just a random branch that had fallen in the wood. It was rather tough to carve and twisted a little as it dried but it did get super thin and is still pretty tough. The blade is pretty flexible & just perfect for spreading. Handle was done pretty quickly but it's comfy to use.

 

[Toddy]

Interesting; I never knew that. I dread to think of the risks I took with rags after oiling my cricket bat(s) back in the days when they didn't have a polymer coating. Pretty sure we used to just drop them in the bin with other combustibles!!

If they can dissipate the heat, they're fine. It's only if they can't that it causes problems.
In the two cases I know of both were in hot summer workshops.
Pure linseed oil doesn't dry quickly, and it's prone to encouraging mildew (ropes fall apart, well, natural ones do), etc.,
Boiled linseed oil does dry more quickly, but it has additives in it that you don't want in your food.

Anyhow, I'm sure someone on the net has written all about it more clearly than I have.
Pretty sure I read an article last time this came up that I saved somewhere. I'll have a looksee and add a link.

M

 

[Toddy]

Here you go
The Natural Handyman

https://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infpai/inflin.html

 

[TLM]

The vegetable oil least likely to go bad is coconut oil which does not "dry" (oxidise) but very slowly if even then. Linseed oil is the likeliest oil to go moldy of the common vegetable oils.

 

[Janne]

I do not know about that. Coconut oil is used a lot here, and it goes rank fairly quickly. And smells really badly.
The oil traditionally used (in Europe) was Walnut Oil for treating furniture.
I never had Linseed Oil ( Flax Oil) go mouldy on me.
I treat all our furniture, both outdoor and indoor plus outdoor door, indoor doors, with Flaxseed oil ( food grade Linseed Oil)
I do not want to use the more common wood furniture oils, or BLO because in a house with AC temp and humidity regulation, you tend not to 'air' it so much.
Those oils contain lots of nasty chemicals. Not healthy I would think.

 

[Robson Valley]

Oxidation presumes that the oil of concern is in constant contact with lots of oxygen = plain air.
When you use Charles' Law of gas physics, the oil is sucked down into the wood as predicted.
Very little air contact. Can't be washed off. Stays fresh for years. Technically simple and economical.

 

[TLM]

That result is according to one food industry oxidation test. I really have no idea how well that correlates to reality. The other factor here is the smellyness of the end products, again that varies from oil to oil, now memory slowly returns the test is done at faily high temp so I guess it relates to frying.

Linseed treated wood does not, in my experience, take mold indoors but fairly easily outdoors especially when newly treated.

I have used the heating trick when treating wood, I prefer though low pressure. One easily gets to 0.1 bar absolute when using water or air ejectors those work well on small volumes though.