Wooks Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 What should you use to clean a walnut body, (indeed any type of natural unfinished wood like mahogany, rosewood, spalt maple, ebony etc) whether it be the body, the neck, or fretboard. What are the best things to use? I've been told conflicting things to use with walnut. Somebody said it should be lightly rubbed with beeswax and somebody else said to use lemon oil, what about a combination of both!!?? So what should I be using?? Anybody got any good tips on how to keep different woods looking good and tip top shape?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clauster Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Assuming it's not been lacquered Beeswax'll keep it polished and conditioned. Lemon oil will clean it (and some say make the wood a touch darker). If it is lacquered then any guitar polish will do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 walnut oil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 any particular brand of lemon oil recommended? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wooks Posted April 23, 2008 Author Share Posted April 23, 2008 Thanks for that, not it's not laquered it's a natural finish. I'm not supposed to have it yet cos it's my birthday prezzie for Sat!! I suppose that's a cheap gift a tin of beeswax lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jono Bolton Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 [quote name='BassManKev' post='183474' date='Apr 23 2008, 08:23 AM']any particular brand of lemon oil recommended?[/quote] Dunlop seems to be standard in most guitar stores. Can't say how good it is though, but I'm tempted to get the 1oz. bottle to try it out, it's about a quid off ebay and my Precision neck needs a bloody good clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB1 Posted April 24, 2008 Share Posted April 24, 2008 [quote name='Wooks' post='183476' date='Apr 23 2008, 08:35 AM']Thanks for that, not it's not laquered it's a natural finish. I'm not supposed to have it yet cos it's my birthday prezzie for Sat!! I suppose that's a cheap gift a tin of beeswax lol[/quote] MB1. Cheap tins of beeswax very rarely have any wax in them ,bees or otherwise.Get a tin of warwick surface finisher it has lemon oil and beeswax in it and does exactly what it says on the tin(lasts for ages,used sparingly).Cheap aerosol household cleaners arent advisable for an open grained finish as they do contain all sorts of crap which usually is not good for your wood!......Fnarr,Fnarr!. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jono Bolton Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 Got my lemon oil today, it seems all right. A bit greasy, and you really have to work it into the wood. Smells nice though. The bottle says to spray 1-2 pumps onto a cloth but I found it was better to spray it directly onto the board, it spreads it about more so you don't have to use so much. My Precision's a 2000, going by the serial number, and it's pretty obvious that the previous owner hadn't even thought about cleaning it, it was foul. Lovely now though. Can't use it on maple boards, apparently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wooks Posted May 1, 2008 Author Share Posted May 1, 2008 [quote name='jono b' post='189193' date='Apr 30 2008, 08:10 PM']Got my lemon oil today, it seems all right. A bit greasy, and you really have to work it into the wood. Smells nice though. The bottle says to spray 1-2 pumps onto a cloth but I found it was better to spray it directly onto the board, it spreads it about more so you don't have to use so much. My Precision's a 2000, going by the serial number, and it's pretty obvious that the previous owner hadn't even thought about cleaning it, it was foul. Lovely now though. Can't use it on maple boards, apparently.[/quote] Where did you get your lemon oil from?? What I've found out from speaking to a luthier is you can use a light amount of beeswax on natural wood finishes to protect the wood, then every so often you find that there will be a build up of the beeswax and a good way to get rid of the build up is to use lemon oil which will take it back to the "wood" and then you can start again with the beeswax. Is this correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jono Bolton Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 (edited) [quote name='Wooks' post='189526' date='May 1 2008, 10:25 AM']Where did you get your lemon oil from?? What I've found out from speaking to a luthier is you can use a light amount of beeswax on natural wood finishes to protect the wood, then every so often you find that there will be a build up of the beeswax and a good way to get rid of the build up is to use lemon oil which will take it back to the "wood" and then you can start again with the beeswax. Is this correct? [/quote] I've can't really help you with that, but I got a 1 oz. bottle of Dunlop Lemon Oil for about £3 posted off ebay, just to try it out, 'cos even if it was sh*t it's no great loss. It was actually alright, and bigger bottles are available. Edited May 1, 2008 by jono b Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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