I thought I’d share a tip that was given to me a while ago regarding removing oil from wood using cornflour.
I have found the following works reasonably well.
Mix about 2 tablespoons of cornflour and acetone so that it has a creamy consistency. You may have to do this several times since acetone is very volatile.
Brush the mixture thickly on to the oil affected areas fairly quickly using small brush strokes. The acetone will evaporate almost as soon as the mixture is applied.
Leave for a day or two, remove the cornflour, and re-apply where necessary.
I have had to repeat this process many times for badly affected areas but they gradually became noticeably less oily. You’ll also find that as the wood becomes less oily the cornflour will be easier to brush off too.
Don’t bother trying to clean the brush after application. Just let the acetone evaporate and then the cornflour can be removed quite easily when the brush is dry.
Acetone may remove paint and other finishes so If you are treating a small area then you’ll need to make sure you protect the paintwork from the effects of acetone which will remove paint and dope.
I have also tried the same method with methylated spirits which is cheaper, less volatile, and gives you a bit more time to apply the mixture. It seems to work just as well although I had removed most of the oil from an airplane using the method described above, by the time I started experimenting with it. I suspect other relatively volatile solvents will work though using something oily, such as turps, would obviously defeat the purpose of this process.