Can hemp oil restore a wooden knife handle?
I'd acquired this kitchen knife some time ago, at least a few years. It wasn't pretty when I got it, but, hey, free kitchenware usually comes in handy. I'm also sure it has gone through the dishwasher a few times, so I was curious to see if hemp oil could restore the much dried-out wooden handle. So this post is not so much about the freestyling, as it is about how to possibly renourish old wooden items with a natural product.
The product I tested was Miss Mustard Seed Hemp Oil, used for furniture finishing (this is not a sponsored post, I was using the product for furniture refinishing). Here we have the hemp oil bottle and the untreated knife handle, sitting on a cutting board in my kitchen.
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| Hemp oil and knife handle |
This is a close-up of the untreated knife handle. You can see how the wood is a little rough, especially near the back edge of the handle, and the color is rather faded.
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| Untreated knife handle |
In the photo below I've applied hemp oil to one side of the handle (towards the bottom of the picture). The wood was clearly VERY dried out, it absorbed the hemp oil right away, you can see how it looks darker and shinier.
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| Knife handle after half treatment with hemp oil |
The results of hemp oil treatment
The results indicate that the hemp oil *did indeed* make this knife handle look better. The wood was darker, the grain of the wood visible again whereas before it was rather faded and gray. The handle also felt a little smoother after the hemp oil was applied and given time to soak in.
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| Knife handle after hemp oil treatment, looking nicer. |
The conclusion - hemp oil made the worn out knife handle look nice again. This is probably a treatment I'll have to repeat if the knife handle gets dried out again from general use, but it only takes a few minutes and smells nice, sort of like grass. An upside is that I didn't have to worry about any toxic substances, and I was able to compost the paper towel I used to apply the oil.
Happy freestyling and fixing!