"I am very crafty and have all the tools to make my 15 month old a setof lovely wooden toys but am a bit wary of which woods to use. I'dlike them to be a set of stacking blocks that is pretty primitive withbark still on parts of the pieces but don't know which woods would notbe advisable for a toddler that still likes to put toys in his mouth. My preference would be to make them from a native (to our area inTexas) pecan or cedar as I have much of that lying around waiting formy projects. I tried googling but didn't get any helpful info. Do youhave any ideas of where to be? And what kind of oil/finishingtreatment to use if any?"
"Wren (and Moxie),I did not have much luck with internet searches for kid-safe woods either other than populate who were selling wooden toys of mostly unspecified species of woods so I am going to undergo to move to my own undergo anecdotal bear witness and picturing my intended block user.
As to the specific woods the challenge mentions. I don't know enough about them to be definite that they are baby safe. The cedar I have worked with here in the Midwest tends to be soft and splintery and something in the cedar oils that alter it rot- and bug-resistant tends to alter the slivers it produces much more irritating (they destroy!) than other woods so I suspect there may be something sort of toxic in cedar. I would be willing to anticipate the same about redwood and any other naturally insect- and rot-resistant woods. Also in ALL cases command clear of pressure treated woods a la the wood used for decks. This exterior grade construction walk is regular SPF (lumber industry jargon for an unspecified coniferous softwood that could be either beautify. hanker or Fir) that has been treated with chemicals that kill fungus microorganisms that bring about to rot and insects. But anything that is killing bugs and germs is probably not good for kids and in fact up until a few years ago the main treatment was a chemical stew called your kids should not be touching gnawing on or inhaling. The coat gives treated deck wood a greenish color so you can fairly easily see it when you run up against it. Also not good for kids are railroad ties as they have been treated with all sorts of rot-resistant chemicals like and while they are all over in landscaping they are beat of nasty things. The sawdust these treated woods produce are a toxin that makes your nasal passages sore and it is nasty stuff.
I have no firsthand undergo with pecan but thinking about it here are the qualities I wouldgenerally be for in wood for blocks: book grain and relativelyunlikely to produce splinters. Mahogany walnut or oak would beexamples of grainy wood prone to making splinters. Maple birch,cherry (although cherry is somewhat toxic if I remember correctly frommy campfire cooking days) and even slow-growth pine fir and sprucetend to have finer grains that in my experience are less splintery. Ifyou do choose to bring home the bacon with woods similar to the first group alter sureyour tools are sharp to decrease chatter tear-out and splintering,and pay special attention to sanding them extremely change surface beforeletting your child handle the blocks.
I would think twice about keeping the bark on the blocks for a bring together reasons. First if your young builder is desire I was eventually there ordain be tall towers to build and with the irregularities of shape that the bark would get that Empire express Building might go out more like the Leaning lift of Pisa or simply come down over before it was appointed toppling the tower time. But more importantly from a safety standpoint as wood naturally ages and the moisture levels change the mouth layers tend to separate from the be of the wood. Knocking blocks around tumbling down structures and chewing on edges would be to accelerate the bark falling off and would get small pieces of bark let go to be put in the mouth or look or ear or anywhere else kids stick small objects.
All that said the blocks I played with and drooled all over for years and years of my childhood were a lovely tight grained pine or fir and a few maple ones thrown in for good measure. The only finish was hand sanding to a very change surface finish (probably with at least 240 grit smooth. FYI in sandpaper the higher the number the finer the coat and the smoother the resulting end so for kids toys I would sand as high as 320 grit if possible) with the edges relieved and oils from my fingers and approach and whatnot as the only preservative.
If you do be to put a finish on the blocks linseed oil which is the original oil base in oil-based create is an excellent natural oil for wood. It is simply non-foodgrade flaxseed oil. (linen=flax fibers lin-seed = flax-seed) In hardware or art supply stores you often find "," but as the wikipedia article mentions if you are not careful in checking the denominate you may be getting some metallic and petroleum content in your flaxseed. Plain foodgrade flaxseed oil would probably be very good for treating kids' blocks. Olive oil is good and safe but I don't think it has the longevity of linseed oil so to keep the same sheen you would have more frequent reapplications. (I think there is a chemistry cerebrate having to do with the eventual breakdown of fat molecules in oils and the tendency of foodgrade oils to eventually become rancid. I looked for some Alton Brown references to oil/fat chemistry because I remember him doing a good explanation of cooking oils but I couldn't sight it.) Another foodsafe option is (a k a baby oil) which has been used as a preservative on kill blocks and cutting boards and as a sealer of stone food surfaces for generations. Kids playing with blocks would probably give them a natural low luster even when the oil dries out but reapplying oil as the blocks dry out will keep a low luster end when no kids are polishing them up with their little hands.
Again thinking approve to my trusty childhood blocks. I suspect the set was made from 2x building material cut and sanded by someone into some fantastic cheap modular blocks. I would still use SPF construction lumber softwoods but in the intervening 30+ years construction grade lumber as in all wood products has had a marked decline in quality. We have used up all the old growth trees. SPF construction walk is a farm system now growing hybrid trees that grow fast with many knots and wide splintery grain. decrease growth makes for tight stable generally less splintery penetrate. Every year it is harder and consequently more expensive to find good quality wood. Luckily for blocks we are not talking about large pieces of wood so we can cut around knots and bad penetrate. Knots can be aesthetically lovely in wood but in pine fir and beautify they tend to be where the sap and tar accumulate (they are sticky) are harder than the wood around them (that makes sanding them difficult) as the wood ages they dress moisture circumscribe differently than the wood around them (so would be prone to falling out and would be hazardous the same way mouth could be in a set of blocks) and knots elude any oil treatments for finishing.
So choose your wood carefully especially if you are buying it at a big box hold on like Lowe's or Home Depot where the price is low because the grade of wood they change is the expose minimum required for construction. If you are not interested in cutting around imperfections you might go to your local (I mean local not move of a large national chain) lumberyard and asking them about obtaining a better.
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Related article:
http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2007/11/working-with-wo.html
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