The finish i use on food bowls and spoons has been CLAPHAM'S BEESWAX SALAD BOWL FINISH ,,, This finish is awesome ,,, food safe finishes are a hard thing to understand if you go on the web to find safe finishes for treenware you will find many differant opinions and products ,,, I have used this product for many years and have had no issues what so ever,,, That being said I wanted to see what others are using or recomending for their bowls and spoons. What I found was I was more confussed and thus causious about what I use. As I searched to see what natural oils would possibly be of use in the initial aplications to my bowls that would give them a saturation deep into the wood, I found many differing ideas and some concerns,,, First concern was a safe oil as I have used OLIVE oil, Fax seed (cold pressed) and Seasamee seed oil, and Wallnut oil (cold pressed), and a few others i personaly have had no issues with any of these for my personal implements... BUT ,,, I don't have allergies,,,  I needed to find out if they would be SAFE not just OK to use for my wooden ware that I have for sale,,, One of the articals I read was   Food-Safe Finishes - Fine Woodworking Article This one was helpful and had a recipie with it,,,
     Some time ago I stumbled onto this wonderful finish CLAPHAM'S and decided to give it a go on my own wooden spoons and bowls "I like it" it is made commecialy by a small mom and pop in the Fraser Valley here in BC,,, big points for me it's local as in next door on the mainland ,,,  It is simply a wax and oil finish The original recipie they (THE CLAPHAM'S) brought over from England some years ago and started producing it at their home for sale and the rest is history ,,, 
    I apply it to my bowls and spoons directly with my hands rubbing it in as best I can and like the label sez "A little goes a long way" it does take a few hours to completely dry though you can use the utensil or cutting board immediatly,,, the oily waxy feel i find very good for my dry hands. The whole idea of a finish is to protect the wood and enhance the appearance of the wood now the GLITZY, GLOSSY, finishes frankly speaking don't appeal to me persoaly at all ,,, I like a rich lustre that is none glaring and will not chip off, or ware off into my food as I am a user of my own wares i have the same concerns as my clients,,, alot of the look and feel of a finish is determined by the final process of making of an item ,,, I think there is nothing as fine as a sharp tooled finish to wood ,,, Yes sanding can produce a very fine finish and will look great done properly though a cut finish is still better then an abraded finish texture on wood,,, and is a whole lot easier to produce provided your tools are sharp,,, also the abraded, or sanded finish will FUZZ up when washed way more then a tooled or cut finish will ,,, I have tried sanding then watering and then sanding my wares and found this helps reduce the FUZZIES and that is a labour intensive process that is not conducive to making money ,,, I have always put product over profit and sanding does insure that alright ,,, though i have found that i could get better finishes just with my tools then anything else i could figure out,,, THEN comes the question of what to apply to the wood once it's made ,,, Waxes (canuba or bee's wax) are a great place to start and they will give a great look and feel ,,,Oils will give a great look as well, so combining the two makes sence to me but ,,,O,,, wait oil and wax repell each other,,, so they need to be heated in order to congel together into a paste,,, this is extremly dangerous if your not experienced and even experienced people have had bad results from adding heat to TWO  VERY FLAMIBLE substances  ... so Im reluctant to giver a go,,, Much easier to just buy it... could be a LOT cheaper in the long run ,,, Does all this mean I "endose" this product ,,, I supose I do,,, my point is I need a finish that I can count on,,, CLAPHAM'S BEESWAX SALAD BOWLS FINISH,,,

The Huge Broad leaf Maple had to come down ,,, As a maple gets to maturity it is huge and this one was massive. There was a lot of wood to be processed. Some of it I am milling into slabs and air drying for furniture making. Some carved into bowls and some into spoons,,, Some I am riving into chair legs and rungs,,, Bowls are a great way to utilize large blocks of the maple. This tree had 4 large stems 20 or so inches across that makes a big bowl,,, had I gotten to it in time,,, these blocks are huge ,,,  

This is some of the stems and branches ,,,  in the photo is one of the tree removel guys hauling some of the debre out of the way for the next branches, blocks and stems to come down,,,fast work  the process took all day and that is a dangerous job these guys do it every day,,, a lot of experience and good planing makes it happen quickly,,, worth every pennie to have professionals do this type of work,,, 

These blocks where checking so quickly after they hit the ground ,,, first one diaginal split across the end grain then in short order they developed other checking,,, so the designs for the bowls become reduced to 1/4 sections of the blocks and from large limbs I get some 1/2 block fliches,,, At this point I don't want to cut out a bowl blank from the centre of the logs I would rather have slabs,,, though as I buck the logs to lenghth for slabing I may still yet get a couple large bowl blanks,,, The key to getting the most out of a tree is to be prepared to process immidiatly after the tree is down and i got some great pieces at that point then it is getting as much done on the wood before it checks up so bad that it is then is only good for fire wood,,, leaving the wood in long lengths when possible extends the time frame of processing,,, I thought I may have more time then I did as it worked out,,, Though I still have many bowls to do most won't be a big as I was hopeing for...There is the huge stump yet to be done though,,, and the slabs are great,,, stacks of branches for spoons,,,