Olive oil staining on top?

Never thought I’d have to ask this one. We had a large bottle of olive oil break and leak all over the kitchen tonight. All the while mopping it up, it never occurred to me that my shop is right below and I had left a 1930s Regal parlor guitar I was working on lying out, uncovered (like an idiot), in my bench. An hour later I went down and saw the guitar i had just reassembled drenched in olive oil. Mostly it was on the fingerboard, which cleaned up easily. But there were dozens of little splatters on the top, and even some on the unfinished wood inside. Wiping up with dry or damp cloths hasn’t touched the spots left from the little splotches. I’m worried the oil somehow stained the finish. I also know there isn’t much I can do about the oil that went in the sound hole.

Any ideas of how to clean up these splotches? I assume the finish is nitro. It’s a late ‘30s bare bones parlor, no binding, tailpiece, etc. The finish was worn thin in places.

I can’t see how to post an image from my phone, so I’ll add one as soon as I’m at my computer.

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Here is the spotting on the top. It’s a little hard to see in the photo, but it’s darker spots scattered randomly over the lighter area of the sunburst. (In person there are splotches in the dark areas too.)

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Here’s inside the sound hole. Ugh. Huge instrument label to cover it?

Don't feel bad, who could have possibly predicted that. You have a couple options. First is not to worry about it, it's probably not the worst thing that's ever happened to that guitar. The second is to keep going, and just soak the whole thing in olive oil. That's a joke... but for real, olive oil is often used as a lubricant for French polishing... so if you want to French polish it, I bet a lot of the splotches will go away when you French polish it. It's not a super valuable instrument, and as long as you don't get olive oil into any open seams which need to get glued shut, I don't think it can do any structural harm. Make sure all the seams are nice and tight, wipe it down with olive oil, and then French polish. Should work just fine to blend everything in together.

You might try wiping it down with naphtha, using a fresh section of cloth for each stroke.
Then, give it some time to sit.
Olive oil does evaporate, but it takes a long time.

Add some anchovies and call it good....;)

Marty, thanks for the advice. I wasn’t planning on French polishing because I didn’t want the guitar to lose its wear. I assume a thing coat won’t do too much. Are you suggesting that I French polish with shellac using olive oil as a lubricant, or just French polish with the olive oil?

Do you think naphtha or mineral spirits would help lift the oil from the unfinished inside? Or would it just push the oil further down into the wood?

Another olive oil use. On an instrument with a nasty to the wood scratch or gauge, you can soften it by mixing a little olive oil and dust gathered from a hidden corner. Make a little mud and work it in. Makes a new bad scratch look like an old bad scratch. To me that’s a much better look.

I did this to my old Epiphone Texan. Asked mt luthier if he could make the new gash match the six other old gashes in the top. That and a year of swet has pretty much done the job.

I would think naphtha would pull a lot of the oil from the inside. It's worth a try. If there's a little splotchiness left you could give the inside a light coat of mineral oil to blend it together.

There used to be [maybe still is] a product for removing a greasy spot from, say, a tie. It was in an aerosol can and basically consisted of a solvent and baby powder. After spraying it on, the solvent evaporated from the surface and the oil was sucked into the powder, to be brushed off. You might try a test on another piece of wood- make a slurry of baby powder, talc, or cornstarch and naphtha and pat a dab onto a spot of oil. Wait for the magic to happen...

Naphtha did the trick! Thanks everyone. The staining is gone from the top. It also looks better on the inside. I could see oil on the cloth when I cleaned the inside, so I may try it again in later.

Remember that wood acts like a sponge and if you have a better wicking material like a rag, the oil goes there. Conversely if your rag or sponge is 'full', the oil will go 'the other way' (back into the wood).

Also french polish, using olive oil or other oils, will dissolve what oily spots are there. Most all oils will mix...

My question is, what kind of floor do you have that olive oil could pass through to below? Just curious.

It wasn’t the floor per se. The house is 115 years old, and the last owners remodeled the kitchen and chose to relocate where the gas pipe came up for the stove. They didn’t plug the old hole. The old hole happens to be right at the edge of the counter where the olive oil spilled.

That hole is now filled, covered from the top, and for good measure, covered from the bottom. More I importantly, works in progress always live in shop cases.

Good about the shop cases. Remember, it could have been a plumbing flood from the kitchen or the bathroom. This was a relatively easy lesson, glad everything worked out.

I think we've all heard about people whose basements were flooded by storms and all the good stuff they have lost...

Yeah, what Don said!!!

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Originally Posted by mreidsma

Naphtha did the trick! Thanks everyone. The staining is gone from the top. It also looks better on the inside. I could see oil on the cloth when I cleaned the inside, so I may try it again in later.

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If you notice there's any residue you might want to try some brown paper with a towel (for weight & contact) on top to draw it out. just swap it out to give a fresh surface until there's no more

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mreidsma

It wasn’t the floor per se. The house is 115 years old, and the last owners remodeled the kitchen and chose to relocate where the gas pipe came up for the stove. They didn’t plug the old hole. The old hole happens to be right at the edge of the counter where the olive oil spilled.

That hole is now filled, covered from the top, and for good measure, covered from the bottom. More I importantly, works in progress always live in shop cases.

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That’s something that I didn’t think of! Makes sense now!