07/30/2026
Good Morning!
A little update on the bakery nook progress and maybe a little DIY education.
Let's take a break from talking bread. Can we talk about tong oil for a hot minute?!?
Listen, my Daddy loved using tong oil. The house I grew up in was a 1 3/4 story craftsman style and had American Chestnut EVERYWHERE. He painstakingly covered almost every inch of that gorgeous woodwork in tong oil. I'll admit, as a kid/teenager, I didn't appreciate the absolute beauty of all that woodwork and the labor of love he applied. 🫣 I thought it was old-fashioned and I THOUGHT I liked the newer, more modern mill work/trim work, the kind I saw in friend's homes. Silly me. 🤦♀️
Tong oil is an amazing NATURAL and NON-TOXIC wood preservation medium.
It is a process however! After tons of research on how to get "that look" but make it durable AND food safe compliant, all roads pointed to tong oil. Imagine that.
Now, I'm no stranger to DIY, but, these counters were a long awaited investment so..... enter anxiety and slight intimidation. 😳😬🙏
Some geeky stuff - Tong oil takes up to 30 days to fully cure - it polymerizes through oxidation which creates a molecular bond within the wood structures creating a solid, practically waterproof, surface. Durable, strong, and absolutely beautiful IMHO. 😍
Pure tong can yellow over time and I didn't want that "golden oak" look... I wanted a more vintage, aged wood look. The kind you see in well loved homestead kitchens, the kind of look that saw multi generations of hands at work. While that will truly only come with use and age, RMP Finishes offers a dark tong with natural pigments that give it more of an aged look, a little darker, but still warm and inviting.
Bingo. That was my ticket. 👏
It takes several coates to make this happen (and perhaps a minor degree in chemistry 😂). Although the coating process can be quite quick (1 coat every 30-45 minutes at first), the curing time is a test of patience. Which I may or may not struggle with at times. In this case, like Fauci, I'll plead the 5th. And like Violet Beauregard, I want to use it NOW!
Patience is a virtue, Donna.
Anywho....
After the frst few flood coats, and a 12-24 hour initial cure, I still have a couple more coats to apply. The first few coats are cut with natural 100% citrus (d-limonine) food grade solvent. This allows the tong oil to apply easily, evenly, and really soak into the wood fibers to start that polymerization process. The first few coats were a precise combination of pure tong, dark tong, and citrus solvent. The last couple were a little heavier on the dark tong. The last coat will be straight dark tong cut with less solvent creating not golden, not walnut, but a happy marriage of the two tones and just slightly deeper than the pictures. 😍
Once the oil starts to pool on the surface, the fibers have become fully saturated. Then, you wipe off the excess and let nature and oxygen take its course. In the meantime, (I'll say it again for my own sanity and discipline), patience is a virtue, Donna. 😂
My Daddy (God rest his soul 🙏) always said "I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong." He was certainly not wrong in this instance.
I now understand that labor of love.
Thanks Daddy. ❤️ I hope I did you proud.
