Beau,
Your instincts are right.
Never oil an historic or artistic object. Many oils that contain organic fatty acids that will tend to hydrolize and crosslink over time. This can cause organometallic corrosion in copper alloys (this naturally occurs when leather is in contact with brass or even on parts of my eyeglasses). Oiling wood or "feeding" wood is another one in which the old oils over time crosslink, darken, and can harden into a glossy black layer. The wonderful conservation firm that I work for recently had a project on a national landmark building where we spent many hours in carefully removing aged layers of linseed oil from wooden architectural elements - and the visual difference is stunning.
The only exception to this is when you have mechanical / functional objects such as machinery where lubrication is required. And even then the oils that are used are selected with properties such as being non-ionic.
I have many years experience in the conservation of historic firearms and I would never recomend oiling the mechanism. First, because the oil will inevitably creep into the adjacent wood stock. Second, because historic firearms should not be snapped or actually shot because there is the danger of metal fatigue that is microscopic can grow and parts can suddenly fail. You should not be playing with old guns!
Cheers!
Dave
David Harvey
Conservator
Los Angeles, CA
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
-----Original Message-----
From: George Harris <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 08:54:35
To:[log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Oiling objects
Hi,
Thanks for the great packing advice. My next question is about oiling
objects. In my training, experience, education, and what makes sense to
me is that no oil should be used on any objects in the museum's permenant
collections, period. My boss, the director of collections, suggested it
the other day and I suspect may still want to put something on, she also
suggested vasilene, which I would also not use on anything. My question
is are there any oils (or is vasilene) that would be acceptable to use on
any museum objects ever? If so, what are they and does anyone know where
to get them and how much they might cost? If not, can anyone suggest any
resources, including online, where it says that you shouldn't use oil? If
it gives reasons for not, that would be good too.
Beau
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