Yes, you can, but most would recommend against it because they do spoil, and it's noticeable when they do
this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2026
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Vegetable oils for cooking are oxidizing but will oxidize slowly, like raw linseed or tung oil. It may have a slight odour as it may go rancid, though probably not significant. Mineral oil is a different kind of oil with a different purpose and won’t harden.
Did some reading, they also apparently get acidic, so it's not a good idea.
I've used rapeseed oil to oil the handles of my knives and whatnot since I couldn't be arsed to buy an oil for that purpose.
Seems to work fine since it's a half-hard oil iirc.
(edit Canola oil for the Americans )
Mineral Oil would work and is food safe
Linseed oil is a good choice because the oil will partially polymerize as it oxidizes. Tung oil is also excellent. Most commercial products are a blend of these.
I have recently done this. Used tung oil and mixed in a bit of pigment to create sort of a transparent oil color for added saturation.
Worked well, but the oil takes multiple weeks to fully dry under best conditions until it doesn't smell anymore.
I would either take the time and wait or use a boiled linseed oil finish with added drying agents.
Also, I had an old bass neck that was treated with the usual mineral oils before. Even though I had flooded the fretboard with naptha, beforehand, it got a bit messy. Oily spots and uneven soaking everywhere. Still not sure if it worked, so I guess it’s possibly one time mineral oil, always mineral oil.
I recommend this also, but put a REALLY thin coat on. Like you should think you've barely got any on, and you should then wipe it off and think you've wiped too much off. There is a lot of bad advice out there about these oils. You can put more coats on if you think it needs it, 24 hours apart. If you put too much on, it will tend to look matte, or worse, get gummy.
24h is not enough time to build coats, not for BLO and absolutely not for any natural oil.
You need to wait much longer, else you’re just saturating the wood more and more (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).
The oils will take much longer to polymerize in the wood, you can prevent any spotting by wiping off any excess if it shows on the surface.
24 hr is enough if the coat is thin enough.
I don't think that’s the case. I tested the drying time of different oils on a sheet of plastic in optimal conditions (summer, sunlight, next to an open window) and it still took 2-3 days for the first ones to dry (being tung oil and perilla oil, I think).
I don’t see how you could accomplish that on wood, unless you’re using drying agents, of course.
Pure tung. I do this all the time. On wood. Maybe you're not putting a thin enough coat. Do you get a shine (without buffing)? Or do you get a matte finish?
The cloth is just damp with it, just enough to leave a sheen on the wood. Now I do put the cloth in a closed container and reuse it several times without needing to put fresh oil on it. So it's possible after the first coat its got a little bit of a start at polymerizing. But it remains damp, it doen't get hard or sticky, so if it starts polymerizing, its not obvious.
I'm doing this in my basement. No special curing conditions, no open window, no sunlight.
Also, maybe wood vs plastic makes a difference.
After thinking some, I should probably emphasize that I'm not claiming you can't get a good result with a less extremely thin coat...perhaps the 2-3 days you state is a way to do that. Others do it by sanding between coats, a lot of buffing, or thinning with terps.
I've gone toward doing it thinner over the years, but I have some good results from before I was as particular about thinness as I am now, but that have may have been because I happened not to get to it every 24 hours. I also have had problems from what was "too thick" to my mind, but possibly "not enough time between coats" is another valid take.
I do think though, that there is a point where no amount of time will give you a good cure. If you get a weird spot in the wood that wants to drink up the oil, and you let it, that soaked in oil never properly cures and can remain a problem.
Preach!
You seem very adverse to online shopping, is there a specific reason for this? AFAIK purpose-made (or at least purpose-labeled) instrument oil isn't all that expensive.
I problem is shipping time, which greatly increased recently in my country. At worst, it takes weeks (!) to ship products.
Can you order some proper stuff online?
Yes, but will arrive after a while.
In pur country there is problem, and that problem is transport.
You may as well use your own cum if you decide to use vegetable oil. That shit has organic compounds that break down when exposed to oxygen and go rancid. Mineral oil based instrument and gear oil are better suited.