oiling and waxing (w/ german products that work well !)

iuserneim

iuserneim

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hi there.

in this post, i'm going to tell you what worked well for me.

the body of my bass is colored oil finish, so it was only the neck that had to be treated. (the wood seemed dry)

there's this shop called "praktiker". they have everything you need, and they seem to have the lowest prices.

first, i sanded the neck (but not the fingerboard) with grit 240, 320, 400.
then, whiped the dust off with a towel and some alcohol (evaporates quick).

then, i oiled it with boiled linseed oil.
it's from praktiker and is called "faust leinölfirnis". one can of about 500ml was about 10€. and you need really little of this so it will last.
so, i wiped the linseed oil on the neck, back of headstock and fingerboard. it must be really oily so don't use to little of it (and DO NOT dilute the oil with anything. just pure oil). 5 minutes later, i wiped of the oil that didn't soak in.
then let dry for 4 or 5 hours, and oil again. (no sanding required before this step).
after wiping oil off, let dry over night.
the next day, i exposed the neck to sunlight, and saw that some pores pressed a bit of oil out, so i did wipe it off and repeated this until there was no oil coming out of the wood (takes the whole day).
then let dry over night again.

the next day, it was ready for waxing. (no sanding required before ! don't want to sand the oiled wood away right ?)
since there was no warwick wax around, i had to go for something different.
i chose "clou antikwachs" from praktiker. this can be liquid or paste. i took paste, because warwick's wax is paste, too.
it is beewax for finishing bare wood. 200ml for 7,50 euro.

i rubbed it into the wood of the neck and the back of the headstock (not the fingerboard !!) using a soft cloth.
then, i let dry over night. next morning, i polished the whole thing with a rough cloth about 2 or 3 times, and waxed again. this time, letting dry for only 1 hour and polishing 3 times.

the result is VERY NICE (should i post pics ?)
i used the same linseed oil on another bass before and knew it would be good.
boiled linseed has aditives (but is not acidic !! i tested it with ph testing paper, so it's ok). it soakes into the wood and has some chemical reaction with the surface of the wood. people just call it "drying process", but in fact it's a reaction.
it makes the wood harder, the grain would come out better, and the color would darken up. AND IT'S NOT STICKY AT ALL if you wipe the excessive oil off after 5 or 10 minutes (as i said before). it does become sticky if you let the excessive oil on over night and it dries. then, you have a gummy film of half-dried oil on it and it's hard to polish it away.

well, since linseed oil dries, it's not necessary to wax. but warwick recommended it and i wanted to give it a try.
it makes the wood shiny and feel a bit more slick, so it's not wrong - except you prefer the touch of bare wood, sanded with grit 400.

i think linseed oil that's pure (not boiled one) would take longer to "dry".

the wenge fingerboard got really dark from oiling. it is nearly black...
the ovangkol went from the normal brown you all might know to a very nice dark brown with the graining coming out very good.

ok, that's it. thought it could be helpful since i found only recomendations for products that can be bought everywhere else but not germany...
 
Hey, I´m really interested in what it looks like right now.
Would be afraid if you could post some pics. 8)
 
Anyone having experience how lindseed oil effects the bubinga-colour and grain?
It sounds quite nice, because sometimes Bubinga seems a bit to reddish for me - but with a darker touch i would really love it, i think.

@iuserneim
Dare you to ask! Sure you should post pics!
 
i'll try to post pics later that day. i have to get a cam first...

well, linseed oil makes EVERY wood look darker. softer woods will darken up more than woods that are more dense, since softer woods absorb more of the oil.

i think bubinga would not absorb as much as swamp ash or alder, but enough to darken it up appreciably.

i would give it a try. it's good for the wood 'cause it builds up a protective surface, and it makes wood look much better.

if i had to choose between boiled and raw linseed oil, i would prefer the boiled one (as long as it has no acids), because it takes less time to dry, so you won't have to wait too long until you can play bass again.
 
that's the bass BEFORE the special treatment :-)



----------------------------------------------------------------------------

and that's it AFTER oiling and waxing:









just have a look at the fretboard. it's nearly as dark as the headstock, isn't it ?
and it feels gooooood, both the fingerboard and the neck.
 
hm... i think i'm gonna give linseed oil a try since i have some at home. i really think it'll lift the zebrano grain to a whole new level of yummee-ness. :)
 
I prefer boiled linseed oil over the pure stuff. Boiled linseed oil contains additives which makes it dry faster/harder. It will also soak into the wood a bit deeper than regular linseed oil because it's a little bit thinner. Linseed oil over time will bring out an orangish/reddish/yellow tone to the wood, Espically if you let the sun light shine on it a bit. On lighter woods like maple/alder/ash it will darken it to a vintage yellowish like you see on the older fenders. On darker woods like ovangkol it will make it an orangish color on the lighter areas of it. It really brings out the grain and figuring too. Careful using linseed oil though as is it spontanious combustible if you leave the steelwool/rags laying around... It's never happened to me but I've heard stories.

I use a boiled linseed oil/teak oil/tung oil mixture with a little bit of dark walnut stain added (the mineral spirits in the stain thins the oil out a bit letting it soak in and once the mineral spirit drys the oil starts to cure and hardens in the wood giving you great protection) I also add a little bit of feed-n-wax every now and then. I've been using ALOT of different types of oil's over the years and always prefer boiled linseed oil over the others. although I'm finding my mixture is working really good :)
 
@ snooze:
zebrano has a lot of contrast by itself. now, if you add linseed oil: be careful not to get a punch in the face from the grain, that will come out :-)

@ thumbin:
it seems like there are not many who like linseed.
do you use it for fingerboards, too ?
(btw: it also cleans the frets a bit...)
 
iuserneim said:
@ snooze:
zebrano has a lot of contrast by itself. now, if you add linseed oil: be careful not to get a punch in the face from the grain, that will come out :-)

@ thumbin:
it seems like there are not many who like linseed.
do you use it for fingerboards, too ?
(btw: it also cleans the frets a bit...)
Click to expand...

Yep, I use it on the fretboard every string change.
 
why do you used it that often ?
(even if you have the strings for 1 year...)

i mean, the oil leaves a surface, and no oil will soak into the wood any more ?
(correct me if i'm wrong)

plus: do you want a wenge fingerboard or one made of oil ?
:-)
 
iuserneim said:
why do you used it that often ?
(even if you have the strings for 1 year...)

i mean, the oil leaves a surface, and no oil will soak into the wood any more ?
(correct me if i'm wrong)

plus: do you want a wenge fingerboard or one made of oil ?
:-)
Click to expand...

Usually just to clean up the gunk left on the fretboard from my fingers... I usually dont give the oil a chance to soak in the fretboard, Just a wipe down. Although As much as I've oiled it chances are none will soak in anyways :P
 
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