Is Varathane Diamond Wood Finish Safe for Baby Toys

[dori...@gmail.com]

Please help! I am new to the world of woodworking and would like to know whether you would use varethane diamond wood finish on toys made for babies, assuming that they would be biting, sucking, and chewing on them a lot. If your answer is no, what finish would you use?

[Ed Pawlowski]

On 12/6/2016 6:49 PM, dori...@gmail.com wrote:
> Please help! I am new to the world of woodworking and would like to know whether you would use varethane diamond wood finish on toys made for babies, assuming that they would be biting, sucking, and chewing on them a lot. If your answer is no, what finish would you use?
>

Today virtually every finish is safe once cured. Lead has been banned
for decades, pigments used are considered safe.

If you are not convinced, use shellac. It is used to coat fills and
other foods so toys are not a problem.

[Unknown]

Ed Pawlowski <e...@snet.net> wrote in
news:_KI1A.94432$iI2....@fx07.iad:

>
> Today virtually every finish is safe once cured. Lead has been banned
> for decades, pigments used are considered safe.
>
> If you are not convinced, use shellac. It is used to coat fills and
> other foods so toys are not a problem.

Just out of curiosity, does food-grade shellac have any special
requirements? Do you have to use a food-grade alcohol to dissolve the
flakes or is standard denatured alcohol good enough?

Puckdropper
--
http://www.puckdroppersplace.us/rec.woodworking
A mini archive of some of rec.woodworking's best and worst!

[Larry Blanchard]

On Tue, 06 Dec 2016 19:30:53 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

> Today virtually every finish is safe once cured. Lead has been banned
> for decades, pigments used are considered safe.

I'm still not convinved. After talking to a chemist friend of mine, I
might drink water or milk out of a wooden mug with a poly or other
manufactured finish, but I sure wouldn't drink orange or tomato juice or
anything with acid or alcohol in it

>
> If you are not convinced, use shellac. It is used to coat fills and
> other foods so toys are not a problem.

Since I doubt the kid will be drinking alcohol, that's a good solution.
But even there I'd make the stuff from flakes because I don't know what
Zinnser puts in their premixed stuff to keep it usable for so long.





--
What if a much of a which of a wind gives the truth to summer's lie?

[Ed Pawlowski]

On 12/6/2016 7:59 PM, Puckdropper wrote:
> Ed Pawlowski <e...@snet.net> wrote in
> news:_KI1A.94432$iI2....@fx07.iad:
>
>>
>> Today virtually every finish is safe once cured. Lead has been banned
>> for decades, pigments used are considered safe.
>>
>> If you are not convinced, use shellac. It is used to coat fills and
>> other foods so toys are not a problem.
>
> Just out of curiosity, does food-grade shellac have any special
> requirements? Do you have to use a food-grade alcohol to dissolve the
> flakes or is standard denatured alcohol good enough?
>
> Puckdropper
>

http://www.shellacshack.com/2008/03/shellac-is-food.html
Shellac is Food Grade

I think your main concern is sanitation/free from organisms (a concern
since it comes from india)

There is a bleached dewaxed powdered shellac that is derived by
percipitation. There is powdered shellac produced by dissolving the raw
material in industrial alcohol (nearly 100%)and filtered. Then there are
the flakes which are produced by the alcohol method.
The fact that the shellac is refined using alcohol, then put in alcohol
solution by the end user makes me think that it would be germ free. I
personally have no qualms about handling the stuff. It fells pretty natural.

[Ed Pawlowski]

On 12/6/2016 8:02 PM, Larry Blanchard wrote:
> On Tue, 06 Dec 2016 19:30:53 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>
>> Today virtually every finish is safe once cured. Lead has been banned
>> for decades, pigments used are considered safe.
>
> I'm still not convinved. After talking to a chemist friend of mine, I
> might drink water or milk out of a wooden mug with a poly or other
> manufactured finish, but I sure wouldn't drink orange or tomato juice or
> anything with acid or alcohol in it

That's why they make glass and ceramics to drink from

[krw]

Leaded glass and glaze? ;-)

[hub...@ccanoemail.ca]

.. from Lee Valley :
We buy orange shellac in 50 kilogram jute bags, the standard export
package of Indian suppliers. For those who don't know, shellac is made
from the secretions of the lac bug (Laccifer lacca). Most shellac is
gathered in India, where it is picked (by hand) from deposits left by
the lac bug in plum trees.
We find many interesting items (besides random bug parts) in our
shellac when we repackage it. Sometimes there is a feather or two, an
empty match box, or scraps of paper. But the most interesting find was
the cigarette butt shown at the lower left hand corner. It is a
hand-rolled leaf held together with a white thread. Among the Hmars, a
tribe in the northeastern Indian states (where lac bugs abound), the
color of the thread used to wrap a cigarette plays a special role in
courtship. Green or blue symbolize reciprocated affection; red stands
for rejection and white is neutral - a "wait-and-see" color.
Apparently, the cigarette that excites a Hmar man most is wound with a
hair from a woman's own head; this indicates unequivocal acceptance of
the suitor's approach and the promise of undying love.
Ah, yes, the untold stories in a bag of shellac!
L.L.
02/94

[woodchucker]

On 12/6/2016 6:49 PM, dori...@gmail.com wrote:

> Please help! I am new to the world of woodworking and would like to know whether you would use varethane diamond wood finish on toys made for babies, assuming that they would be biting, sucking, and chewing on them a lot. If your answer is no, what finish would you use?
>

I would only use shellac , period!!!

Shellac is used by the pharma industry to coat pills, so they slide down
easier, that and carnuba wax.

So Shellac is about as friendly as it gets.



--
Jeff

[John McCoy]

Larry Blanchard <lbl...@fastmail.fm> wrote in news:o27n35$6ji$1
@gioia.aioe.org:

> On Tue, 06 Dec 2016 19:30:53 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>
>> Today virtually every finish is safe once cured. Lead has been banned
>> for decades, pigments used are considered safe.
>
> I'm still not convinved. After talking to a chemist friend of mine, I
> might drink water or milk out of a wooden mug with a poly or other
> manufactured finish, but I sure wouldn't drink orange or tomato juice or
> anything with acid or alcohol in it

Hmmm. I'm not sure poly varnishes are going to be worse than
a plastic cup or plastic water bottle. Given the recent concerns
about PET plastics, varnish may actually be safer.

John

[Steve]

I have used shellac on many a child's toy, for exactly this reason. However, depending on the toy and the level of finish you're looking for, you might also consider simple mineral oil. Mineral Oil is and has been the Butcher Block's & Cutting Board's finish forever. I do all of the baby blocks I make in mineral oil, especially since they're just going to be chucked around anyway. Also then, all it will take is a quick sand and another coat if they need refreshing (which is clearly... never!) Good luck!

[hub...@ccanoemail.ca]

re : homemade wooden baby toys

>
>Hmmm. I'm not sure poly varnishes are going to be worse than
>a plastic cup or plastic water bottle. Given the recent concerns
>about PET plastics, varnish may actually be safer.
>John

If I follow your logic - -
We might be poisoning our babies with plastics anyway,
why bother to look for the safest wood finish.
Geeesh.
John T.

[Electric Comet]

On Tue, 6 Dec 2016 21:27:16 -0500
Ed Pawlowski <e...@snet.net> wrote:

> That's why they make glass and ceramics to drink from

yes and i wonder if doris knows shellac is made out of bugs from india

[Electric Comet]

do the babies have teeth yet if not then they cannot actually eat the
wood and finish

if they have teeth then just use mineral oil

send some emails to manufacturers of wooden baby products
or just look at their site

[Larry Blanchard]

On Wed, 07 Dec 2016 11:18:23 -0500, hubops wrote:

> We might be poisoning our babies with plastics anyway,
> why bother to look for the safest wood finish.

I suspect we're poisoning ourselves with a lot of modern industrial
pollutants, which we've been doing at least since the Romans invented
lead water pipe.

That's no reason to ignore the ones we can easily eliminate.

[John McCoy]

hub...@ccanoemail.ca wrote in news:8vcg4c9icshtntd4sulj47i8cdp15i26rj@
4ax.com:

Wow, talk about taking an extreme leap.

No, the point here is to not go off the deep end (as
you seem to have done). If you think plastics are
unsafe, then you probably don't want varnish either.
If you think plastics are safe, then you're being a
bit illogical to immediately decide varnish isn't.

FWIW, when I made baby toys (some 20 years ago), I
just left the wood bare. Solved the problem (*).

John

(* actually it doesn't, you need to be careful what
woods you use if baby can chew them. I mostly used
maple)

[hub...@ccanoemail.ca]

.. perfect - we now agree - about no finish -
I hope the OP isn't applying some poly floor finish
to the baby toys .. because little Buford likes to
chew plastics anyways ..
John T.