Oil finishing a porous wood neck

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Purchased a "barn find" neck for one of my builds. Warmoth thinks it is canary wood. Wood is quite grainy and porous, definitely feels a bit textured. Came to me rough in a few spots so I asked my luthier to polish it a bit, currently feels great and I'd keep it as-is.

However, he warned me that sweat and dirt can eventually lead it it getting rough again.

Should I finish it with some oil? Tru-oil? Polyx? Linseed? Do I need to do much prep like further sanding or chemical degreasing? Thanks!

BillDL

Although boiled linseed oil (not pure) does soak into and build up in the grain, it takes ages to dry and if applied too thickly or successive coats are applied before the previous ones have dried completely, it will never harden fully and can remain gummy.

I would suggest Tung Oil for this job as it does dry much harder in the grain.  I can only vouch for this because I have used it for a couple of mahogany necks with excellent results in the past.  Others may have some better suggestions for wipe-on oil-like products that do a better job more easily, for example Tru-Oil (polymerised to dry faster), or Danish Oil (can be a mix of polymerised oils including Tung Oil).

If the neck is sanded as smooth as is needed, the only thing likely to raise the grain would be a water-based product.  Some people will deliberately dampen wood to raise the grain, then allow it to dry and do a final very fine sanding.  Oil finishes shouldn't raise the grain, so as long as the oil finish goes on smooth, soaks in, and can then be buffed up you shouldn't need any further wood preparation.

It is usually only oily woods like rosewood that need to be wiped with solvents before applying glue or lacquer types of finish.  By the look of that wood you shouldn't need any "chemical" treatments.

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BillDL said:

It is usually only oily woods like rosewood that need to be wiped with solvents before applying glue or lacquer types of finish.  By the look of that wood you shouldn't need any "chemical" treatments.

Thanks! I guess my worry was about some grease off my hands as I've been playing it for a few days (it's not greasy, I wash hands!) and that things like the headstock were probably not buffed by the luthier