Umm Naptha to clean rosewood fretboard?

[Kickin'Fruit]

I just used Naptha (lighter fluid) to clean my rosewood fretboard, as reccommended in a thread. Then followed by murphy's oil soap (diluted). I thought Lighter fluid.... on wood? Am I just too gullible and just screwed up my fretboard or am I okay?

[TheEmptyCell]

I'd never use lighter fluid for anything but lighting a fire, but maybe it's a good cleaner...

I still just use lemon oil. Got a big ol' jug at WallyWorld for $5... cleaned and restrung tons of times... still haven't used even a couple ounces of the stuff.

[-Kramer-]

You should be fine with the Naptha on the finger board. I don't know about the soap oil just because I have not heard of that before, but if you took the advice of someone on TB, I am sure you will be fine.

-Kramer

[Bassflute]

Originally Posted by Kickin'Fruit

I just used Naptha (lighter fluid) to clean my rosewood fretboard, as reccommended in a thread. Then followed by murphy's oil soap (diluted). I thought Lighter fluid.... on wood? Am I just too gullible and just screwed up my fretboard or am I okay?

Naptha? You don't need that crap, and you just dried the *&^# out of your fingerboard, assuming it's not a maple board with a clearcoat on it. Don't do that - it'll crack on you. If it's dry now, feed the wood immediately with some fingerboard oil - I would give it a fairly heavy coat to counteract any damage the Naptha may have done. Wait till it's dry, wipe off the excesss, then put your string back on - don't get fingerboard oil on your strings - kills 'em dead.

If it's plain wood (rosewood, wenge, anything but finished maple) use ultrafine (also called 0000 or XXXX) plain steel wool, lightly, up and down the entire length of the fingerboard, not stopping in one spot, till it's clean. This will also remove burrs on your frets. And afterwards feed the wood with some really good fingerboard oil (Dunlop, etc.). It wouldn't hurt to cover your pickups with a cloth before you start to prevent filings from the steel wool sticking to your pickups.

This isn't a diesel engine you are cleaning, it's a fine wood instrument. Would you do that to your antique rocker?

And try to get some advice from a respected luthier before you do anything else to it.

Naptha? Murphy's wood soap? Yech!!!

Cameron

[62bass]

I've used naptha for years to clean rosewood fingerboards on my basses. They have never dried and cracked. They don't even look dried out.

I wouldn't use Murphy's oil soap myself. It leaves a bit of residue which will gum up. Also it has water in it which I don't like on my fingerboards.

I'll continue using naptha where appropriate. If it makes you feel better, use some lemon oil (scented mineral oil) after to prevent the mythical drying out.

[pkr2]

Originally Posted by Bassflute

Naptha? You don't need that crap, and you just dried the *&^# out of your fingerboard, assuming it's not a maple board with a clearcoat on it. Don't do that - it'll crack on you. If it's dry now, feed the wood immediately with some fingerboard oil - I would give it a fairly heavy coat to counteract any damage the Naptha may have done. Wait till it's dry, wipe off the excesss, then put your string back on - don't get fingerboard oil on your strings - kills 'em dead.

If it's plain wood (rosewood, wenge, anything but finished maple) use ultrafine (also called 0000 or XXXX) plain steel wool, lightly, up and down the entire length of the fingerboard, not stopping in one spot, till it's clean. This will also remove burrs on your frets. And afterwards feed the wood with some really good fingerboard oil (Dunlop, etc.). It wouldn't hurt to cover your pickups with a cloth before you start to prevent filings from the steel wool sticking to your pickups.

This isn't a diesel engine you are cleaning, it's a fine wood instrument. Would you do that to your antique rocker?

And try to get some advice from a respected luthier before you do anything else to it.

Naptha? Murphy's wood soap? Yech!!!

Cameron

I have used naptha for a long time to clean a bunch of boards ahd I've never seen nor heard of naptha causing the destruction that you describe. To soak all the oil out of a rosewood fingerboard would require gallons of naptha. The small amount that you would use to clean a f.b. wouldn't be a threat at all.

Wool depends on lanolin, a form of oil, to keep the wool soft and flexible. Professional dry cleaners use a very pure grade of naptha to clean wool. It doesn't leach the oil out of the wool.

I don't mean to be overly critical of your post, but Kicking Fruit is probably having the big one right about now.
I agree with the rest of your post completely, especially, as you mentioned, replenish the oil right away.

I'm not sure what I think about the soap oil, though

[Bass]

Originally Posted by Bassflute

...This isn't a diesel engine you are cleaning, it's a fine wood instrument...

I use gasoline to remove oil from engines.

Also, I use a rotary tool with a soft "cup" brush to clean the gunk off fretboards. This works really well for the gunk that gets stuck behind the frets. Sometimes, I use a polishing wheel on the rotary tool with a little Mother's aluminum polish to make the frets sparkle.

I like boiled linseed oil to treat the fretboard.

[pkr2]

I think that a lot of people that are putting way too much oil into the wood are looking at an unglued fingerboard sooner, rather than later. When all that oil migrates through the wood to the glue joint, who knows how it may affect it? Most guitars come with the frets stuck in with superglue or it's equivelant. Too much oil might affect the superglue. Maybe niether of the above will happen. I wouldn't take the risk.

With about any wood that's normally used for fingerboards, the amount that your fingers put on the board over a period of time is the perfect amount. All the skin oils do is seal in the oil that's in the wood to start with. It gives you a surface that plays like silk. It doesn't transfer to the strings and it's practically maintenence free. Buff it with a dry cloth every time you play it and clean it rarely and sparingly and the FB will just keep getting better and better.

IMO, of course.

[jwymore]

Originally Posted by 62bass

I've used naptha for years to clean rosewood fingerboards on my basses. They have never dried and cracked. They don't even look dried out.

I wouldn't use Murphy's oil soap myself. It leaves a bit of residue which will gum up. Also it has water in it which I don't like on my fingerboards.

I'll continue using naptha where appropriate. If it makes you feel better, use some lemon oil (scented mineral oil) after to prevent the mythical drying out.

+1 except I use small amounts of boiled linseed oil ILO Lemon oil.

[WalterBush]

Originally Posted by pkr2

I think that a lot of people that are putting way too much oil into the wood are looking at an unglued fingerboard sooner, rather than later. When all that oil migrates through the wood to the glue joint, who knows how it may affect it? Most guitars come with the frets stuck in with superglue or it's equivelant. Too much oil might affect the superglue. Maybe niether of the above will happen. I wouldn't take the risk.

With about any wood that's normally used for fingerboards, the amount that your fingers put on the board over a period of time is the perfect amount. All the skin oils do is seal in the oil that's in the wood to start with. It gives you a surface that plays like silk. It doesn't transfer to the strings and it's practically maintenence free. Buff it with a dry cloth every time you play it and clean it rarely and sparingly and the FB will just keep getting better and better.

IMO, of course.

Unless your wood cleaner has some kind of solvent in it, like, say, turpentine, you don't have to worry about it affecting glues used on your neck.

Likewise, finger oil isn't a sealant, since it doesn't penetrate, and dissolves easily.

I've heard arguments in favor of lots of different oils (naptha is an oil, BTW), and the only consistent thing I've heard is A) make sure it's a pure oil, with no solvents, and B) don't oil the maple. It's already finished, and will make a sticky mess.

Naptha is a great cleaner, and won't dry your fretboard, although it evaporates too quickly to penetrate and seal.

My DB luthier uses linseed oil, and that's what I use personally on my rosewood and ebony fingerboards. It's almost varnish like, an excellent sealer, penetrates, and won't ruin glues. I like the smell, too.

BTW, I recommend scraping finger gook off with a guitar pick, then cleaning with naptha or a dedicated fretboard cleaner. 0000 steel wool still scratches frets, fingerboards, and inlays, and should be used for polishing metal and buffing in between finish coats, IMO.

[62bass]

I'd call naptha a solvent rather than an oil. It certainly cleans well and yes, it evaporates very quickly. I use it for a lot of different cleaning apart from instruments. It's also a good faster drying solvent for varnish, rather than mineral spirits.

Sometimes it can be hard to find, but one cheap source is Coleman's lamp oil. I've used it in my Zippo lighter. Way cheaper than buying lighter fluid. There are a couple different kinds of lamp oil. The right one says it contains naptha (in very small print)

Re linseed oil-there are two types. There's raw linseed oil (flax oil) which takes forever to dry, if at all, and boiled linseed oil, which is not actually boiled anymore to promote drying but intead has metallic drying agents added. It will harden and form a varnish like film. A lot of woodworkers use it as an oil finish on wood. It gives a nice look and darkens considerably with age. I sometimes use it underneath a varnish surface to bring out the grain and to promote darkening when that's the look I want. It looks great on pine, for one example, and after a year or so darkens to a very nice antique brown. Works great on ash too.

[Kickin'Fruit]

Originally Posted by 62bass

Re linseed oil-there are two types. There's raw linseed oil (flax oil) which takes forever to dry, if at all, and boiled linseed oil, which is not actually boiled anymore to promote drying but intead has metallic drying agents added. It will harden and form a varnish like film. A lot of woodworkers use it as an oil finish on wood. It gives a nice look and darkens considerably with age. I sometimes use it underneath a varnish surface to bring out the grain and to promote darkening when that's the look I want. It looks great on pine, for one example, and after a year or so darkens to a very nice antique brown. Works great on ash too.

THANKS! That's exactly the look I was trying to acheive. I saw Boiled Linseed Oil in Home Depot and I was going to buy it, but it was like an industrial sized can for $16. You think I can get it at Wally World? I'll treat my fretboard with it as soon as I can, my FB is looking dried and has small gouges in it. Is that normal and will the Boiled Linseed Oil fix that? Thanks again guys.

[GrooveWarrior]

Originally Posted by jabberwock777

don't oil the maple. It's already finished

Not always. My Custom Warrior Signature 4 has an unfinished birdseye maple board. Most maple boarded Warriors are unfinished. Naptha and fingerboard oil work great on it.

[62bass]

I have used boiled linseed oil on rosewood fingerboards and it has worked well. After cleaning the fingerboard, wipe a coat on, give it 5 minutes or so to penetrate, then wipe off all the residue with a soft cotton cloth. Make sure you get it all off the frets and beside the frets. If you let pools of it harden, it can stay a bit gummy and attract dirt.

I like the darkening effect it gives to rosewood, but it does take up to a year (in the case of a couple pine tables I did), to really get that rich colour. On rosewood, it will not turn the fingerboard black, just darken it and make it look sort of wetter. You don't want to build up thick coats of it. Just get it to soak in and wipe off anything on the surface.

On tables like pine, where I want the oil to really penetrate deeply, I heat some in a double boiler arrangement on a hotplate to about 200F and apply it warm. Heating it makes it less thick and effectively thins it without using paint thinner. Heating it also makes it dry faster.

On a fretted fingerboard I let it dry 24 hours before playing. Fretless, I'd give it a couple days.

Make sure you dispose of oil soaked rags by either hanging them out to dry or soaking in water. Wadding an oil soaked rag up and putting it the garbage has the potential of starting a fire through spontaneous combustion, as many woodworkers and a few luthiers have found the hard way.

The smallest bottle of boiled linseed oil I have been able to find is about a quart, from Home Depot in Canada, and a few other paint supply stores. Keep the can tightly closed to prevent it drying out. It probably will before you need to use it on the fingerboard again, but you may want to use it on another project.

[johnvice]

The best way to clean your bass is before you open the case to practice or gig, wash your hands and then rise them with 50-75% alcohol. (Higher potency is great for cleaning strings but will dry the skin on your hands.)

Naphtha is a great cleaner for bridges, tuners, knobs, bass bodies and the backs of necks. I use Zippo lighter fluid, I’m not sure if this is pure napatha but it works great!

I prefer rosewood fingerboards which I wipe with lemon oil when I change the strings.

I lightly sand the frets with fine steel wool to prevent grooves from developing where the strings contact the frets. (I klike the groove in my hearts not in my frets )