mineral oil on bird's eye maple


Woody n' you

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I have a 1907 A. B. Chase upright piano that has a beautiful exposed bird's eye maple pin block. It had dried out somewhat over the last 100 years or so. In my ignorance I treated it with mineral oil thinking that because this (mineral oil) is good for preventing cutting boards and wooden kitchen utensils from drying out that it would be a good treatment for any wood. I later came to realize that this may have been a big mistake as I learned that mineral oil will make the wood fibers swell (this is not good for a pinblock) and the wood now has a "sticky" feel to it. The wood was treated with varnish (I'm guessing shellac) when the piano was made. I hope that I have not damaged it irreparably. I  would greatly appreciate advice on how to remedy my mistake and restore the moisture and original luster of the wood.

                                                                                      Sincerely, Woody n' you

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If the wood was sealed with varnish or shellac then most if not all of the oil is stiiting on top of that. Mineral oil does not dry and harden into a film, it just gets sticky. Cleaning with a rag or Qtip dampened in mineral spirits should do the trick. I would check with someone with piano repair & restoration experience before I did more than cleaning it up.

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I don't know what a pin block is, but your best bet is to wipe with naptha or mineral spirts.  Just make sure you get real mineral spirits, not the eco friendly kind the the green label. t might help clean off the the mineral oil and will not damage shellac or urethane varnish.

Eric is correct that Shellac is not Varnish, or at least not in common usage.  Technically speaking, Shellac is a type of varnish but no one uses the term that way.  At least not anymore.  That being said, guys like Schwarz might call it "spirit varnish" because they to use terms from the 1800s.  But they are wrong.  

 

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