It's a curing oil, acting pretty much as any other curing oil does. I use walnut oil on kitchen things all the time. Don't burnish and close the pores of the wood, and you'll get pretty good water-rejecting soak for the first coat. If you decide on a second, wait a week, or until you can't see a smudge from a hard-pressed thumb in the oil on the surface. Very important to wipe after fifteen/twenty minutes or you start collecting stuff like non-curing oils while it's curing. Don't handle a freshly oiled piece with unwashed hands even to move it aside to shell peas. Good black dirt is great out in the garden, but looks less so on maple.
Don't know what Mahoney does, but commercial use outfits extract the oil with solvent, leaving any traces of nut proteins behind, The stuff you get in the store is just pressed, and may have traces in it. For the phobic, makes it possible to get a reaction to the oil until any proteins are denatured. Chances begin as infinitesimal and go to nil, but someone in the prove the negative mindset is bound to mention it.
You can burnish and harden the wood a bit after the oil's cured, if you like, and get a pleasant lustre. When relatively fresh, it's a great look, too.
