Cleaning wenge and other porous wood

citesquestion

I have a wenge neck. It's really nice but quite porous. As a result, you can see some of the pores get gunked up with dirt after normal usage. It's not too bothersome but visible – little white groves. Is there a standard way of cleaning these?

I tried napha with some paper roll and it helps a bit but not 100%. Also have Dunlop lemon oil and what not. Somebody online is suggesting a brush with soapy water (and oil afterwards) but I'm not somewhat reluctant without being quite careful  

WezV

Not water.   Use a toothbrush and isopropyl 

BillDL

Are you talking about the back of the neck or a fretboard?

The "someone online" might be talking about how Dave from Canada (YouTube "Dave's World of Fun Stuff") cleans really grimy fretboards - household cleaning agent and nail brush.  He dries it very quickly afterwards and later oils it.  Normally water shouldn't be near a fretboard, but he only uses this for really caked-on grime where the only other alternative would be scraping.  For just normal usage gunk where naptha doesn't shift it very well I tend to use alcohol just as WezV has suggested.  If you take a credit card and slice it in a straight line with the blade at an angle you have a scraper with one sharp edge for getting in close to the frets that won't damage the fretboard.

If you are talking about the back of the neck, then it sounds like it is a bare wood one that had an oil finish on it to begin with, in which case you would probably need to very finely sand it and re-coat it with whatever oil finish was used.

WezV

once it is clean i would be tempted to go with some briwax after the oil.  Natural will be fine.  This will partially fill the deepest pores, whilst still feeling nice and natural