Walnut worktops - how to treat!!!!!!!

[Lalamum18]

I've been on here previously and got some fab advice re child staying at Xmas with nut allergy. We are now looking at a DIY problem! We have a walnut worktop which is normally treated with walnut oil or other oils which all contain nuts. Do any DIY buffs know of an oil we could use instead to treat our worktop prior to Xmas?

NIGHTMARE!!!

I'd check if it's the wood /oil/nuts that they're allergic to.

maybe the wood is ok?

but if not, then short of doing the whole lot with serious varnish, like Yacht varnish, and totally sealing it, your house will be an allergy trap for them.

I taught Tech for 15 years and while we had a load of kids in the school who had nut and other allergies, I never had a problem with walnut, which I used a lot as we had a shopfitter factory up the road who gave us all their off cuts (like 2m x 5cm x 30cm offcuts!), and as well as pupils projects I made guitars and mandolins from it. constant haze of sawdust in the air and never a problem.

used Tung oil and linseed oil but never walnut oil, so can't comment on those......

What about polyx hardwax oil?

Danish Oil?

Oops, apparently the tung oil in danish oil is a nut product. Can it not contain any nut?

I use olive oil on my wooden fruit bowl and chopping boards. Can that be used on worktops?

I think the walnut top itself is fine - it hasn't got cuts in or anything - but normally you would protect it with oil - and most oils do contain nuts. My best thought us olive oil currently but my carpenter says its not the best for full protection

ikea do oil for chopping boards and worktops which i very occasionally remember to use, which is why my boards look bait knackered!

www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00046786/

a bit
not bait

one handed typing while trying to field the baby who should be bloody asleep

Vegetable oil. Olive oil. Any oil feeds wood & helps protect against staining. Oil is never the best protection compared to varnish, but better than nothing.

It may be that walnut oil is actually not a problem for people with nut allergies as during the refining/ heating process the protein responsible for causing allergies is often destroyed. I'm told that most nut oils would be ok for my severely nut allergic DS (although I would never risk it!) It might be worth looking into that (maybe contacting the manufacturer?) and also talking to the child's parents about how they feel about it.

Most (not all) allergies to things like nuts involve ingestion orally. In most cases skin-only contact is not enough to cause a reaction and if a reaction is caused, it is usually milder than when ingested.

My allergist recommends I test things I'm not sure about ingesting on the inside of my wrist as that would be a smaller, safer reaction.

Walnut wood is also very much not the same thing as walnuts. It has been dried and treated out the wazoo and should bear no resemblance to the enzymes that cause an allergic reaction, even if the kid licks or gnaws at the work surface...

Things like nut oils etc can be very tricky (although I don't think it's the same sort of oil used to treat a work surface as one would cook with. Not 100% sure on that though tbf) as nuts are one of the hardest things to cook evenly and enough in order to change the enzyme structure so that it does not cause an allergic reaction. Also, many fancier oils are cold-pressed, which means they are not heated and it is the heat that causes the required changes to the enzyme structure.

Finally, if you are actually worried about this (IMO, don't worry, honestly. Key word is 'ingestion') then there's a little jar sold in most supermarkets 'lord sheraton wood balsam' that would give a nice finish to the walnut. It's easy to apply and reapply and costs about a fiver. Good luck!