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Walnut Oil & Gloves?

Randy Anderson

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May 25, 2019
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I don't use gloves when I apply walnut oil. I get it all over my hands and like many my age it seems to help with my dry skin and cracking on my hands. A friend of mine started turning recently and he looked surprised I don't use gloves to apply it. I do with other finishes of course but not walnut oil. I wouldn't think there's any risk or health issues with getting it on my hands on a regular basis but wondering if anyone has looked into it. He watched a guy on youtube applying it gloves but figured it was just to avoid the mess on his hands.
 
Do you put on surgical gloves to toss a salad? OK, so you don't use your hands, you use tongs, but that's the closest to clever I came up with.

I wear gloves as the oil leaves my hands feeling greasy and then I leave fingerprints all over the house. But not because of toxicity.
 
There is no worry at all if the oils (walnut, flax, tung, etc) are not mixed with metal driers (like cobalt, lead, manganese) or other additives. If the oils are sold as edible, getting it on your hands is no worse than ingesting them. Using oils sold as a finish would dictate some precautions. The only exception to this are those specifically developed and marketed as non-toxic, like polymerized tung and the Tried & True products.
 
The walnut oil I use is from the grocery store.
It is a food
We used it in kids classes because we figured they could even lick their fingers after applying with no I’ll effects.

commercial preparations not sold in grocery stores may have additives that you want to protect against read the MDS
 
Well, many years and thousands of bowls using the walnut oils, and apply them by hand with no gloves. My hands feel nice and smooth after I am done. Since I don't do concrete work any more, I don't need extra moisturizer....

robo hippy
 
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