Re: A Hopeless Mahogany Case ?
Lovely colour. I sometimes see softwood dyed that colour (eg on tacky articles in garden centres) and they really are fooling nobody- it looks like exactly what it is!
I had an Avo (softwood) box that had deteriorated to the point where the joints were separating, and a large spillage of machine oil was in evidence on the lid. In such a situation i went in hard, reverse engineered it into a flatpack and soaked it in petrol for days, drying the pieces at intervals and leaving it in the sun- 2 or 3 times this resulted in extra oil coming to the surface, to be rubbed off with a rag. The condition was never going to be any more than 'functional' once pinned glued and screwed back together, but i did give it check straps to stop the new hinges going the same way as the old ones. Also had to move the Cheney latches inboard as the old screwholes were worn out. I noted that the petrol smell did fade away (it was quite fresh petrol)- which was nice.
Incidentally the fire risk associated with linseed oil rags is still not as widely known as it deserves to be- so i'll just repeat it here.
I recall i tried Fuller's Earth as a means of absorbing oil bleeding out from this particular wooden case- not very successful, and a bit messy.
Dave
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