Lemon Oil For A Dry Fret board

#22
Diamond_Dave said:
Yeah, just don’t use linseed or olive oil or anything that will either go rancid or actually seal the wood. Assuming it’s rosewood. Maple will be sealed and is a different animal altogether.
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Actually....
Linseed oil is good because it will seal the wood. that's good. It's not a great sealer, but it helps and sealing a fingerboard is a good idea. It helps prevent moisture loss the way any non-sealing coating can't.

And olive oil is pretty good too. Not as good as linseed, but not bad. This myth about not using olive oil on wood comes from the makers of wood salad bowls. The problem in that case is of microbial rancidity, and some microbes can make you sick if you eat them. So if you plan on licking you fingerboard I'd avoid the olive oil. Otherwise it's fine - along with corn oil, sunflower seed oil, safflower oil, or walnut oil. I'd avoid truffle oil though - it stinks and it's horribly expensive.
 
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#23
Turnaround said:
Actually....
Linseed oil is good because it will seal the wood. that's good. It's not a great sealer, but it helps and sealing a fingerboard is a good idea. It helps prevent moisture loss the way any non-sealing coating can't.

And olive oil is pretty good too. Not as good as linseed, but not bad. This myth about not using olive oil on wood comes from the makers of wood salad bowls. The problem in that case is of microbial rancidity, and some microbes can make you sick if you eat them. So if you plan on licking you fingerboard I'd avoid the olive oil. Otherwise it's fine - along with corn oil, sunflower seed oil, safflower oil, or walnut oil. I'd avoid truffle oil though - it stinks and it's horribly expensive.
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None of this is accurate.

Use mineral oil, sparingly, if you have to.
 
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#24
lowplaces said:
NP

A lot of times that ashy/chaulky look on a rosewood fretboard is because someone got guitar polish on the fretboard.

Not always the case but sometimes that's what it is.
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Not polish.
Diamond_Dave said:
None of this is accurate.

Use mineral oil, sparingly, if you have to.
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That is what I plan on using. Probably all of the other things to put on fretboards are mineral oil based. I thing the less additives in it the better.
 
#25
Diamond_Dave said:
None of this is accurate.

Use mineral oil, sparingly, if you have to.
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What's inaccurate about it? Sealing a fingerboard is good. Helps to reduce moisture loss. Or perhaps you think that olive oil does not go rancid. Or that licking a rancid board is a good idea. Please enlighten us.
 
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#26
Turnaround said:
What's inaccurate about it? Sealing a fingerboard is good. Helps to reduce moisture loss. Or perhaps you think that olive oil does not go rancid. Or that licking a rancid board is a good idea. Please enlighten us.
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You seem to think that sealing the wood is a good thing. Rosewood is meant to be left unfinished. If it needed to be finished, they’d do it at the factory. It’s an oily wood. Unless your house has the same humidity as the Sahara Desert, it doesn’t need additional liquids applied to it, other than for aesthetic reasons.

I never advocated the use of olive oil, or licking a fretboard. Mineral oil. It’s inert and turns the wood that pretty dark color people like. It can also help drive moisture out of the strings, keeping them shiny and free of rust and corrosion for longer (the principle behind fast fret, which is mineral oil in a cloth applicator).
 
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#27
Diamond_Dave said:
You seem to think that sealing the wood is a good thing. Rosewood is meant to be left unfinished. If it needed to be finished, they’d do it at the factory. It’s an oily wood. Unless your house has the same humidity as the Sahara Desert, it doesn’t need additional liquids applied to it, other than for aesthetic reasons.

I never advocated the use of olive oil, or licking a fretboard. Mineral oil. It’s inert and turns the wood that pretty dark color people like. It can also help drive moisture out of the strings, keeping them shiny and free of rust and corrosion for longer (the principle behind fast fret, which is mineral oil in a cloth applicator).
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Just so you know, most of the fingerboards coming from fine luthiers have a light sealer applied to the fingerboard. And who says rosewood was not meant to be finished? It doesn't have to be finished, but there's no problem sealing it or even putting a high gloss finish on it. I don't recommend a thick high-gloss on fingerboards, but Rickenbacker does. For fingerboards, a light sealer enhances the beauty of the wood, enriching the colour and helps reduce moisture loss and gain.

Mineral oil does make the wood look pretty. But it's no good against moisture loss. And rosewood will take on and lose moisture as does any wood. Because it's naturally oily it does so far less readily that most non-oily woods. It can usually get on just fine without the addition of other oils, but a light application of a sealer will also help keep the oils that are naturally in the wood from evaporating (yes they do evaporate). Sealing the wood also inhibits dirt and grunge from adhering to the wood, making cleaning easier.

I am of the opinion that you needn't routinely oil your rosewood fingerboard. It actually picks up oil from your fingers which is usually enough to replace oil that's lost through evaporation. But a touch of oil to pretty it up a bit is fine. It's just a cosmetic treatment though. For some the choice comes down to whether to use a "natural" oil as derived from plants as opposed to a distillate of petroleum.
 
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#28
Turnaround said:
Just so you know, most of the fingerboards coming from fine luthiers have a light sealer applied to the fingerboard. And who says rosewood was not meant to be finished? It doesn't have to be finished, but there's no problem sealing it or even putting a high gloss finish on it. I don't recommend a thick high-gloss on fingerboards, but Rickenbacker does. For fingerboards, a light sealer enhances the beauty of the wood, enriching the colour and helps reduce moisture loss and gain.

Mineral oil does make the wood look pretty. But it's no good against moisture loss. And rosewood will take on and lose moisture as does any wood. Because it's naturally oily it does so far less readily that most non-oily woods. It can usually get on just fine without the addition of other oils, but a light application of a sealer will also help keep the oils that are naturally in the wood from evaporating (yes they do evaporate). Sealing the wood also inhibits dirt and grunge from adhering to the wood, making cleaning easier.

I am of the opinion that you needn't routinely oil your rosewood fingerboard. It actually picks up oil from your fingers which is usually enough to replace oil that's lost through evaporation. But a touch of oil to pretty it up a bit is fine. It's just a cosmetic treatment though. For some the choice comes down to whether to use a "natural" oil as derived from plants as opposed to a distillate of petroleum.
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On my basses a majority of my playing is between the 1st and 12th frets. Those on my basses look good. Between the 12th and 21st is where I rarely play and things look ashy so the fretboard in this area needs some treatment. Still not sure whether to use a commercially available oil or straight mineral oil but I am leaning toward mineral oil.
 
#29
Greg Waldon said:
On my basses a majority of my playing is between the 1st and 12th frets. Those on my basses look good. Between the 12th and 21st is where I rarely play and things look ashy so the fretboard in this area needs some treatment. Still not sure whether to use a commercially available oil or straight mineral oil but I am leaning toward mineral oil.
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You may only need to clean the board. In the photo below you can see that the board on the right half looks dull and dry. On the left half I cleaned the board using a mild detergent in water - just a drop on a rag, rubbed on and immediately rubbed off. Board wasn't dry at all, just dirty.

DryFretboard-small.jpg
 
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#31
Killed_by_Death said:
I'm one of few who uses no oils. I just wipe down the fretboard with a damp, clean cloth when I change the strings.
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I tried cleaning with a damp cloth with mild detergent and it didn't help much. I got a bottle of mineral oil from DG and applied it sparingly to the fretboard and wiped over the fretboard with a dry cloth and it looks amazing.
 
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#34
RustyAxe said:
You can make it shiny and smell good. That's about all "lemon" oil will do for your fretboard. And when it dries white, you'll have to do it again ... and again ... and again.
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Total BS. Not talking about pure lemon oil, or squeezing your lemon on it.
Jasco was always a great wood conditioner, and that includes fret boards.
 
#37
I have never owned a bass with a non-ebony fret board but at some point it is bound to happen so this is an interesting thread. I have used olive oil on my ebony fret boards since the late eighties. I wipe it on with one clothe and wipe it off with another. Never had any issues but have no idea if it is right or wrong.
 
#38
Turnaround said:
And olive oil is pretty good too. Not as good as linseed, but not bad. This myth about not using olive oil on wood comes from the makers of wood salad bowls. The problem in that case is of microbial rancidity, and some microbes can make you sick if you eat them. So if you plan on licking you fingerboard I'd avoid the olive oil. Otherwise it's fine - along with corn oil, sunflower seed oil, safflower oil, or walnut oil. I'd avoid truffle oil though - it stinks and it's horribly expensive.
Click to expand...

Very interesting to read. Should I avoid white or black truffle oil more? :D

For me, I find it interesting that purveyors of expensive fretboard oil insist that olive oil (and other culinary oil) will rot, go rancid etc. Yet these same salesmen will claim that their product is made with "food-grade" oil or similar boilerplate. I've found that products like 'Fret Doctor' tend to get the most endorsement on forums with the most deep-seated dogma. Les Paul forums spring to mind.

This sort of weird duality of understanding seems to be pretty common and consistent with fretboard oils. These oils both keep the moisture out/in and let the board breathe. Oil somehow hydrates a board (eh?) while acting as a barrier to moisture. They are intended to darken a pale fretboard, only they aren't a finish.... They soak in, only they don't. :laugh:

I use boiled linseed oil, thinned down with naptha. I picked this idea up from other woodworking forums. The naptha evaporates quickly, leaving the thin oil finish behind. I do this because I want a certain look and consistent sheen on my rosewood boards, and BLO takes a while to dry and seems to remain quite pungently attached to the fretboard. I tend to clean the boards first, and use acetone or naptha to dry them out first and get them ready to accept a thinned oil finish. I don't use a lot of oil at all, and I wipe off the excess after a few minutes. I also watch out for little upwellings of oil from the board thereafter.

I suppose the important point is to not assume that a fretboard automatically needs oiled? I've also noticed that some fretboards, usually on Mexican Fenders, come with a sort of satin mist coat of lacquer? If you spy these boards out there they have a very flat, matte and even appearance.
 
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#39
Das Jugghead said:
I have never owned a bass with a non-ebony fret board but at some point it is bound to happen so this is an interesting thread. I have used olive oil on my ebony fret boards since the late eighties. I wipe it on with one clothe and wipe it off with another. Never had any issues but have no idea if it is right or wrong.
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Olive oil is expensive. I bought a big bottle of mineral oil for $2 at DG that will last me for years for cheap. Life is good.
 
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