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After I lemon oiled a Mad Rose fretboard,it looked so pretty I got to thinking what if I lemon oiled the Mad rose back and sides to bring out the color, and then z-poxied and French Polished.It seems like wiping with Naptha darkens the wood and it looses it`s rosey color,that the lemon oil seems to give bring out. Has anyone ever tried something like this?maybe one of you finishing experts?
                        James
LET ER RIP

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

I've never tried to oil the whole back and sides but I know that using linseed oil makes an ebony fretboard season and glow. When I was apprenticed to a violinmaker in 1948 we used lemon oil and pumice after we had varnished the whole instrument as the final finish. We would rub the whole thing with oil and pumice and it would give it a wonderful glow. I think it would not be a good thing as the only finish, because it is really just a furniture polish, but as a final touch, it would be great.

G'day James,

               I don't think Z-poxy is going to adhere to an oil finish.

Welcome to the O.L.F. Barbara . Great to have you here. 50 years years experience ! WOW !
     
Regards ,Craig       

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CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
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James, I could be wrong, but I believe that "lemon oil" is just mineral oil
with lemony smelling things in it, and I think mineral oil is a non-drying
oil. Again, I could be wrong, but I don't think you could successfully put
anything over that.

I have heard of people oiling wood with, say, danish oil, and then putting
shellac over it once fully cured, and then finishing with waterbase or
whatever.

I would think that any "oil" finish that's actually made for finishing would
give you the same effect as the lemon oil.

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

The last step to a tru-oil finish (LMI, I think) as to wipe everything with lemon oil and polish with burlap.

Like Craig said, though, I'd worry about the zpoxy sticking well if it is already oiled. Try it on some scrap.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

I used to clean my guitars with lemon oil, but never thought of using it for a finish. True lemon oil is expensive... as stated above, most of what you get in the stores as lemon oil is just a mineral oil with lemon fragrance.

I know that rosewood is naturally oily but I'm not so sure that zpoxy would stick to the mineral oil finish either... maybe a test run on some scrap wood would be in order?

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Reguards,

Ken H

I don't believe that most comercially available "lemon oil" has dryers in it. If you want to use oil to pop the colour & grain, Watco works well & (once thoroughly dried) will take a lacquer finish.
I did this on the neck, back & sides my first guitars & It worked well.
I'd sure give it a good test run with Z-Poxy before trying it on an instrument. To test the adhesion on the test piece, try scraping the finish completely off a small section of the test piece. If you can scrape & sand the epoxy off so there is a smooth feathered edge with no chipping, you have good adhesion.

As a rule epoxy will not adhere well to a surface that has a media that will block penetration such as waxes and oils. It may stay put due to surface tension but when worked by scraping and sanding is likely to chip or peel.

I would pore fill first with Zpoxy, sand back to bare wood everywhere. This will leave the Zpoxy in the pores but expose bare wood to the lemon oil for coloration enhancement

Good tip Michael.I`m gonna try that on some scrap and see what happens.
               Thanks,
                    James
Let Er Rip

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee