I have an electric guitar, and its fingerboard in is rough shape after years of barely touching it and being lent to my younger brother (big mistake). I unfortunately don’t have an instrument shop close, so I would have to order oil for it, and even the closest one only carries like 1 or 2 kinds of string kits and a few arranger keyboards, not cleaning products.
While I probably could get mineral oil (not at the moment of writing this, due to weekends), I’m wondering how well cooking oil would work. Tried some grapeseed oil on some other piece of wood, where it wouldn’t be a problem.
NOTE: Likely will go with the mineral oil, so I also have something to clean strings with.
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.