Solid oak worktops - how do you clean yours? Is Danish oil (etc) food-safe?

[shoom]

Just that- what do you use to clean and treat your wooden kitchen worktop? Do you feel like it's hygienic?

our oak worktops are treated with osmo polyx hard wax oil.

I clean them with whatever is to hand - no special treatment.

Danish oil is not food safe in that you couldn't use it to treat a chopping board. but it is perfectly safe for worktops. although, imo, it is not a good finish (used it before the osmo).

Thanks ceres, how would you describe the difference in finish? Is the osmo difficult to apply?

The Osmo is the bees knees. It's very easy to apply.

shoom - as amazonian says osmo is very easy to apply. you do have to take the Danish oil off first though - we sanded ours back, a bit messy! but at least it only needs doing once.

the osmo is much more robust than the Danish oil or linseed oil we had previously used. I put hot pans on it and am not very careful about mopping up water straight away - our worktops are perfect, not a black spot in sight even around the Belfast sink.

we haven't recoated yet, I think we put the osmo on about two years ago now. we gave it a good 3 coats initially. apparently when you want to recoat it is just a case of wiping it on - no need to sand first.

in terms of the way it looks we always found it difficult to get a nice even finish with the Danish oil, it always seemed to look a bit patchy. we also found the worktops went very orange-y over time.

the osmo comes in either a matt or a satin finish. we went with the matt - it is not truly matt but is a nice soft look, not shiny.

I don't work for osmo - but I reckon they should pay me as I recommend their hard wax oil so often!

That sounds great, thanks. I've bought a house with oak worktops and this is uncharted territory. I'm used to worktops that can be wiped with anything, and are forgiving of spoils and hot plates etc. Osmo sounds ideal.

Spoils - spills!