Bamboo Kitchen Utensils Seem to be Waterproofed - But With What?

March 3, 2011 6:37 AM

What are these bamboo utensils coated with? I just got a canister filled with some bamboo utensils - spatula, spoon, slotted spoon etc. They seem to be waterproofed with some kind of coating. Does anyone know what kind of coating is used in this process? Thanks
posted by watercarrier to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

Could be shellac. That's quite a common lacquer for spoons and bowls; it's totally food-safe (and is even used in some foods).
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 6:40 AM on March 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I always season my new wooden utensils with mineral oil. Same with any wood cutting boards (I have a bamboo one as well). Woods are very porous, so the seasoning helps to prevent from absorbing bacteria.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 6:43 AM on March 3, 2011

The link says "burnished" , which is a process of rubbing the wood with another piece of wood or tool. It produces a varnish-like sheen.
posted by lobstah at 6:45 AM on March 3, 2011

Ah yes, it does say that they're burnished. It says 'Burnished honey color results from oven-roasting the bamboo'.

Bamboo tends to be very resistant to water compared with other woods. The burnishing probably helps with that too.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 7:05 AM on March 3, 2011

Response by poster: The link is a random one btw - but I'm looking around and it seems that they use a clear varnish among others - this is what I got so far - there could be other coatings. What kind of varnish - they don't say - maybe someone can help with this - what kind of varnish would they use to coat these utensils? Thanks so much.
posted by watercarrier at 7:27 AM on March 3, 2011

This page lists a lot of different food-safe finishes. A lot of them are oils; if it's a varnish-like finish I'd suspect that it's shellac. I wouldn't expect to find anything like a polyurethane varnish on a kitchen utensil that's designed for cooking.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 7:59 AM on March 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: An actual varnish like coating is almost certainly going to be shellac. It's cheap, won't wash off with soap and water and it is safe to eat (rather than just being contact food safe). There is a slight chance it could be raw linseed or tung oil but both of those have extremely long cure times when not adulterated with metallic dryers so not usually seen on commercial products.

However in the case of bamboo the finish right from a scraper is quite smooth, it is possible they apply nothing but heat after shaping. You can see this for yourself if you have a bamboo utensil that has gotten fuzzy by using a piece of broken glass (bottom of a beer bottle works really well) to scrape the surface smooth. The surface will get smooth and shiny with not much effort.
posted by Mitheral at 9:56 AM on March 3, 2011

None of the bamboo utensils I own are coated with anything.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:09 AM on March 3, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks everyone for the replies much obliged. I'm not sure what it is - could be the natural trait of bamboo items to bead water away from itself? Sure looks like a wax of some sort - but I'm not sure especially after reading this.
posted by watercarrier at 11:02 AM on March 3, 2011

they make oil for bamboo kitchen utensils as a cleaning/maintenance product. I don't know if they would come with that on to start with, but it's possible.
posted by J. Wilson at 3:31 PM on March 3, 2011