FAQ
Everything you want to know
(and some you don't)
MOST COMMON
Q: Are your products food-safe?
A: All of our products that are meant to come in contact with food, are safe. For example, if you purchase a cutting board, it is food-safe. If you purchase a necklace and gnaw on it, that's probably not the best for a number of reasons. Don't make this weird.
Q: How do I take care of my food-safe board?
A: Wooden boards are NOT safe for the dishwasher. They don't know how to swim. This includes all of our wood and wood / epoxy charcuterie boards, cutting boards, cheese boards, etc. For proper care, follow these instructions:
1. Cleaning - wash with lukewarm /cold water and soap, towel dry, and allow plenty of time to fully dry. Store board on edge. NEVER leave the board on a wet surface. Doing so will cause the wood to absorb the moisture and potentially expand and crack.
2. Maintenance - depending on use, you may need to sand the board with an orbital sander to a smooth finish. After sanding, apply a food-safe wax or oil and wipe off excess. It's highly recommended to apply a food-safe wax / oil every few months to keep the board sealed.
Q: Is local pick-up available?
A: Absolutely! We're generally available in the areas between Addison to Aubrey, TX.
FINISHING
Q: Why is it important not to skip grits?
A: Never skip grits! We typically sand our products to 320 grit with a minimum of 220 grit. The reason you never skip grits is because the next grit erases the swirl marks from the previous grit. We always do 60, 120, 150, 180, 220, and finally 320 (after raising the grain). Does it take longer? Absolutely. Does it suck? You bet. Is it the right thing to do? Without question. If you go from 60 grit straight to 220 grit, not only will you see swirl marks from the 60 grit, but you're working that 220 sandpaper way too hard and fast.
Q: Why is it important to "raise the grain"?
A: Raising the grain means wetting the item prior to final sanding. We do this to ensure that the first time you wash the item, it won't feel rough.
Q: What type of finish do you use?
A: For our food -safe products, we coat or soak the item with multiple rounds of food-safe mineral oil. We then apply Odie's Oil.
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For pretty much everything else, we use Walrus Oil.
RANDOM
Q: Do you take custom orders?
A: It depends on what it is. Can we build you a spaceship? Probably not. We'd keep it for ourselves. Can we make you a custom cutting board? Most likely. Feel free to contact us with your idea(s) for a quote. I promise I'll respond.
Q: Where does the wood come from?
A: We only use sustainably sourced wood. That means all of our wood comes from natural disasters, dead or fallen trees, or people cutting their trees for one reason or another. We do not, knowingly, use wood from trees that were cut down for no reason.
Q: Why is epoxy so expensive?
A: This is tricky. We only use Ecopoxy for our food-safe items and for the vast majority of all our items. We feel they're the safest on the market not only for us, but for the consumer. They also minimize the amount of bubbles in our casting. However, they are insanely expensive. A 6 liter kit costs us about $200. We literally buy it from Amazon or Etsy so we do not get a discount. Unfortunately, this forces us to price our epoxy items a bit higher. We feel it's worth it to put out a high quality product that's safe and bubble-free.
Q: Why is using dry wood important?
A: If you don't buy from us, make sure you ask the seller "what is the moisture content?". I can tell you the moisture content of every piece of wood we have because we actually use a pinless moisture meter. Why is pinless important? Because the meters with prongs / pins can only measure to the depth of the prong. For example, if the prong is 1/2", it can only measure the moisture content for the top 1/2" of the piece of wood. If the wood is 5" thick, what good is that going to do? Using dry wood is important because as the wood dries, it will shrink. If you buy an item with wood that is NOT dried, it can warp causing joints to fail or even crack.
All of our items for sale were either professionally kiln-dried or under 10% in moisture, generally 6-7%.