Oiling natural gut strings.

[Paddy Morris]

Hi there.  Anyone out there who plays on natural gut strings, I'm wondering what oil people use to keep their strings in good fettle.

 

I've always just wiped mine down with olive oil from the kitchen every so often.  Is there a 'special' oil I should have been using all this time?

[keeponehandloose]

Lemon oil is good..

[Duckyincarnate]

I have a little bottle of gut string oil from Hidersine called Hidrol, which I used when I still played gut strings. They don't seem to make it anymore. Unfortunately it does not say what kind of oil it is - it's clear though. I remember that I didn't have to use it very often, and that I needed very very little oil. 

[NickA]

Is this a thing to do?  My viola da gamba has natural gut strings but I never oiled them, so I checked it out and found it's not normal but some folk swear by it:

 

https://www.joshlee415.com/blog/2019/7/28/oiling-gut-strings

 

Almond oil recommended in another post.

[Paddy Morris]

59 minutes ago, NickA said:

Is this a thing to do?  My viola da gamba has natural gut strings but I never oiled them, so I checked it out and found it's not normal but some folk swear by it:

 

https://www.joshlee415.com/blog/2019/7/28/oiling-gut-strings

 

Almond oil recommended in another post.

Blimey. 48 hours coiled up in a bow of oil?!  Seems kinda extreme to me.  But then I just had to replace a string today, because of an outdoor gig on a rainy day.  Maybeq I could have saved it if I had whacked it in a bowl of oil immediately after playing.

[Burns-bass]

Some people recommend olive oil for leather which is a bad idea.

 

I guess it depends on the quality of the olive oil, but I was told it will deteriorate fairly quickly and potentially degrade the material. It certainly does for leather, for example.