I treat the spoons and ladles I carve with food grade organic flax/linseed oil and roast in a fan oven at 180 deg C, giving a robust coating that is also very safe. A few coats are required to fill all the pores in the wood for a beautiful satin finish but all the coats can be completed in a couple of hours total. Colours start at a something slightly darker than the natural oil colour and darken to the colour of chocolate depending on how long they’re in the oven for. The smell is of hot cooking oil unless you go for full chocolate brown in which case it starts to smell of burnt oil and a bit smoky. Fully dry your item first and heat it up slowly in the oven to 180 deg C before applying the first coat so that all areas cure and colour equally. Saturate the wood initially then wipe off all excess with a paper towel which you can then use to add the subsequent coats. Check on the spoon and remove any drips that appear during roasting before they harden. Silicone oven mitts are great for handling the spoons while hot.

Author here, I also bought a dehydrator to keep my finished spoons at 70C (158F) for 10 hours to speed up the curing of the tung oil. It really works wonders!

I prefer to keep the original color of the wood I sell, so lower temperatures are better for me, but I like the look of toasted wood as well.

My problem with just oil is that the finish is very matte, hence the wax and resin complication I'm going through in the article. But matte is also a look that people look for so there's no problem in that, it's just my personal preference and style that's different.

Do those oils polymerize at that temperature and are those polymers food safe? Also how stable are they since spatulas routinely come into contact with high temperatures?

I honestly do not know because while I have read that specifically boiled linseed oil does cure to be safe it was not clear to me whether it was safe for skin contact or fully food safe and food safe isn’t the same thing as safe for e.g. stirring pasta as it boils or stirring food that is frying in oil.

Could you deep fry the spoons in your oil of choice? Imagine a commercial fry cook from a fast food restaurant. The heat would open the wood pores there by removing moisture content replaced with penetrant from the oil bath. Remove, let cool, and wipe off. In theory I don't believe there's anything wrong with the idea.

As a hobbyist woodworker, I've been wondering how to protect my projects. I need to try this, great idea, thanks for sharing.