Another lemon oil question

[juggernaught]

I just talked to a local luthier here in Albuquerque by the name of Bill Richardson (not the governor who just endorsed Obama, yay!).  He told me that he absolutely recommends against using lemon oil for the fretboard, especially in a dry climate like this, because lemon oil is far to viscous and over time will make the frets loose.  He recommends to use mineral oil instead.  Any thoughts?

[bob]

I wonder whether he understood you meant the pure, essential lemon oil that is recommended here? Buy a bottle of the stuff, and compare it to mineral oil yourself - I believe you'll find that the mineral oil is clearly thicker and more slimy feeling.
 
Aside from the fact that it sounds backward, I'm not sure I understand the viscosity argument anyway, and don't think there would be anything particularly wrong about using mineral oil.
 
Perhaps he misspoke, and was concerned that the thinner lemon oil would soak in more easily, and that in a dry climate you might be tempted to overdo it. But as long as you're not trying to saturate the thing, I don't think you'll have a problem with either one.

[juggernaught]

Ah, I think I got it backwards.  Lemon oil is not viscous enough.  Thanks.  Either way I'm not sure.  Alembic recommends lemon oil, but here is a very experienced luthier recommending not to use lemon oil and to use mineral oil instead.  And yes, he was also talking about the pure stuff.

[lbpesq]

I use lemon oil on all of my guitars.  Never had a loose fret.  And I bet it smells a lot nicer than mineral oil.
 
Bill, tgo

[juggernaught]

Not really loose frets exactly, but dead ones.  Ever take, for example, a metal ruler and tap all the frets listening for the pitch?  The deader ones are the low pitch ones, since the fret isn't set tightly to the neck.  But all this is more of a problem in dry areas, apparently, and not such a big deal in a more humid area like CA.

[keith_h]

I use pure lemon oil with no issues whether it is in the very dry house of winter (some of my antiques dry out to the point where the doors don't meet the latches) or the very humid summer. Are you sure your luthier is not getting it confused with something like Formsby's which is a lemon scented mineral oil that also contains waxes. The waxes are very bad.
 
Keith

[juggernaught]

Nope, Bill was talking about lemon oil relating to its lack of viscosity.

[keith_h]

Here is a link to a post by Mica saying why they like lemon oil.  
 
Keith