Salt & Pepper Mills

[winpooh498]

I am getting ready to make my first Salt & Pepper mills and am wondering what if anything do I need to put in the inside to seal the wood? Is there any woods that I shouldn't use?

Thanks for your help!
Have a wonderful day!!
Dawn

 

[Darley]

do not use Camphor wood at all, you can seal the inside with wax, but the 2 elements must be hot ( the wax and the pepper mill ) put the pepper mill in a zip lock bag with weight and boil it up 15 to 20 minutes then pour the hot wax in it, it will seal very quickly, hope this help

 

[mewell]

Dawn - Welcome to the IAP... My wife (also Dawn!) has started turning salt and pepper <u>shakers</u> and had the very same question about woods (not sealing). We wrote to several published authors asking advice on wood and all seemed to specifically avoid the question other than say generally "oak, aspen, maple, cherry, ash and beech should be OK..."

I suppose it's the litigious age we live in [!]

Darley - Thanks for the tip on sealing: Do you use bee's wax?

Mark

 

[Darley]

Originally posted by mewell
<br />

Darley - Thanks for the tip on sealing: Do you use bee's wax?

Mark

Mark I use normal candle wax, I think bee wax can be use but got a strong smell to be mixed with food.

 

[Fred]

Why seal the inside at all? I have never had a problem with clean cut holes that have no slivers to come loose and get ground up with the pepper corns. Just sand the inside lightly and finish the outside as you prefer. []

 

[mewell]

Fred - Not to hijack Dawn's thread, but there was concern on the part of MY Dawn r.e. contamination of the salt and/or pepper by the wood chosen.

 

[TellicoTurning]

I have been using the plexi coating for sealing the inside.. I dip a 1" foam brush in the solution and twirl around and paint the inside until I get a good coating.. then toss the brush.. you wind up with a thin plastic coating inside the mill.

Edit, If you use spalted woods, I think it's important to seal inside.. the oaks, beech, cherry, etc as mention earlier are all probably okay, unless they are spalting.

 

[jtate]

Chuck,

That's the plexiglass/acetone mixture? I've been using it to stabilize corncobs to turn into pens. I'm thinking about turning some into Salt and Pepper shakers too.

Julia

 

[Darley]

Originally posted by jtate
<br />Chuck,

That's the plexiglass/acetone mixture? I've been using it to stabilize corncobs to turn into pens. I'm thinking about turning some into Salt and Pepper shakers too.

Julia

Julia I would be interested to see and know how you will do a Salt and Pepper shakers with corn cobs, any info you can share ? Thanks

 

[Jim in Oakville]

Hi,

I use native North American hard woods, mostly maple and cherry for my mills (I have made about 36 of them). I do not use a finish or sealer of any kind on the inside of them.