White streaking on tung oil finish?

Could it be water?

 

Have you tried cleaning it? I thought tung oil was pretty hard once cured and fairly water resistant. I'm presuming it really is tung oil.

 

That looks to me like someone applied polish over the tung oil finish, and the result is polish in the grain.

You're the owner - have you been rubbing polish on it?

 

Might check with the person who did it to find out what they used. If it's not tung oil that could be wax or something else settling in there. Let us know how brushing it goes.

 

Tung oil has become a generic term for a boiled linseed oil and varnish blend. There aren't many differences between any of them.

 

You find might some information that will help you in the thread (link below) on applying a sanded-in oil finish.

FWIW, I've tested several of these finishes, and found them as different as night and day with respect to appearance, durability, moisture resistance, abrasion resistance, coloration, ease of application, and so forth.

 

A toothbrush with really soft bristles might indeed help. I'm tempted to suggest using such a toothbrush and mineral spirits in one small, hard to see area. It wouldn't affect most finishes, but there's always that chance.

Yes, I agree it would be a great idea to find out what specific finish was used.

 

Could be air pockets. Ice in the winter looks white when air is underneath. Or oxidation of a metal atoms, micro parts of the wood or oil.

 

I bought on an antique oak buffet that was filthy: waxy dirty buildup from decades. I cleaned it with mineral spirits and steel wool. It went all milky white. I rubbed on tung oil with a cloth and rubbed it in good. That was fifteen years ago. It sits in my kitchen and is a catch all and the finish is durable. We never wax it or polish it. It remains beautiful.

My advice is that you wipe it hard with a softy cloth with mineral spirits. Let it dry. Then rub tung oil in hard with another soft cloth. That white is caused, imo, by the continuing process of moisture and sap leeching out and affecting the tung oil. At any rate, cleaning with mineral spirits and rubbing more ill into it will in no way harm it.

 

I used (100% real) tung oil once to finish something with very similar grain and did a bad job wiping off the extra oil that absorbed and then released out of the wood. It ended up curing with a whitish film in the grain that looked like that. I used a cheap nylon brush, mineral spirits, and a lot of elbow grease to clean it up before a second finish attempt.

 

When I suggested: "water", I was not clear on what I meant. I should have said it looks like the finish was affected by moisture. From what the OP has said about the care, and handling of the bass since new, the moisture may be coming out of wood that was not at a low enough moisture content when the finish was applied, and probably not atmospheric humidity.

Rubbing with mineral spirits to partially dissolve the finish down to the inner damaged layer may work, and restoring it with the same materials as used originally may work, but if the problem was caused by internal moisture content, and the level is still too high, the problem may return.

It is worth a try, and if it returns, I would strip the finish, and dry the body.

You can check the moisture content with a "Lignometer", if you can find a wood shop equipped with one, but they do use two pointy probes that would leave marks, so if you really want to measure it, I would try to test it in an inconspicuous spot.

(Edit) Now, I see it was made by a local builder not too long ago. I would take it back to the builder, and see what they have to say.