# Questions about Emmet's Good Stuff finish



## [email protected] (Oct 5, 2013)

I’ve been making cutting boards for sale and for Christmas presents for a while now, and I usually finish them with mineral oil and/or beeswax. I’m perfectly happy with the finish I use for my own boards, but I have been trying some new stuff in an effort to find something for people who want a more low maintenance board. So far Emmet’s Good Stuff finish seems like it has a lot of potential, but I’ve never personally used a board that has Emmet’s as the finish. So I had a few questions for anyone who has used Emmet’s or something similar.

1. Do you (Can you?) use things like mineral oil or beeswax if you first apply Emmet’s? I would think that using either mineral oil or beeswax would add nothing to the finish because the Emmet’s would prevent it from soaking in. Having said that, I saw a couple of posts where people said that they hit the board with mineral oil and/or wax after applying Emmet’s. That seems odd to me, but I am interested if it works just the same. If it does work, I’d like to know because Emmet’s adds virtually no color. Normally I’m pleased that Emmet’s adds no color, but for some people they want the darker look that oil/wax brings while also having a lower maintenance board which Emmet’s is good for. Does anyone have experience using them together? I’m assuming that it would be virtually impossible to even apply Emmet’s if you first applied mineral oil or wax. But maybe you could apply it afterwards somehow??

2. Is there any value in applying multiple coats of Emmet’s? I mean this in a functional sense, not a cosmetic sense. I could see how adding more coats of Emmet’s would change its appearance, but I’m more interested in how it would effect the board’s performance. Do multiple coats make a more effective barrier to water?

3. Is there any other finish one could use before applying Emmet’s? I am assuming that one could apply dewaxed Shellac before applying Emmet’s, but maybe not. I’m curious about this because I would like to find a way to darken the wood before adding the Emmet’s. Since dewaxed Shellac is food safe, it seemed like something that would work. I also use it as a sanding sealer under a bunch of different finishes, and it always seems to work great. But I don’t really know much about Emmet’s so maybe it’s a bad idea for some reason. Does anyone know more about this?

Thanks in advance for your help!


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Never used the emmets stuff, but stay away from shellac on a cutting board. Film finishes in general should be avoided on a cutting board, they just aren't durable enought to stand up to a knife and once they're knicked they tend to trap moisture in

As far as the emmets stuff goes, the msds would seem to suggest that its a thinned oil of some sort or another, so I see no reason you wouldn't be able to add oil/wax over it


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