Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion To Clean or Not to Clean Early Oilzum Tin wood can

Have only got a couple of opinions on to clean the can or not. It is a wood wrapped can as seen, We found it about 5 days ago deep under a stair well completely in the dark cleaning out a basement about 1/2 mile from the Old locations of Oilzum plant in Worcester MA. the house was built 1898-1900 and we believe that the can had been there since house was being constructed. The can is extremely dirty literally completely covered in spider webs coal dust dirt etc. I know that cleaning the can would make it Pop more but in my personal opinion I can clearly read what it says which is Heavy Oilzum Gas Engine Cylinder Oil White & Bagley Co. Worcester Mass. I want to leave as is put it in a UV light protected glass display without cleaning but other opinions telling me to clean it. Also if anyone knows somebody that specializes in wood specific maintenance cleaning or repair that they have had success with it would be appreciated sharing the info. In my mind to clean the can would be to take some of its history away but a couple other well respected collectors are telling me to have it cleaned or clean it. any opinions from fellow members who have ran into similar circumstances would be a big help.

Wowie, wow!!!!!!! Amazing find!!
You just gave all the Oilzum fans "wood",,, ha ha
I would consider taking it to a established art conservator.
Tell them what your thinking and see what a couple of them say.
At the least, they should give you a idea what might work for you to use to clean it up some yourself, if you want to go that route.
Also another thought I have is consulting a wood restoration shop.
Congrats and good luck!!!

I also have one.In 30 years of collecting cans i have only seen 2 plus your's.Don't touch the damn thing,just wipe it off.Imo super cool item,but they don't seem to bring big bucks.

thank you so much for the info guys I did do a super light clean on it, came out absolutely fantastic completely different piece I did get advice from a wood restoration company he saved me some money told me how to do it with no chemicals or tools. I only put a watermark on the picture because I had not known that there were similar cans in a price guide and realized his cans were missing several graphics that my can has on it I also made the picture darker so the foreign repop experts would not be able to get exact details plus there are other things I purposely left things out of picture that without it they would never be able to repop it properly that is my only concern. but I think you will get the Idea.
thanks again for the advice greatly appreciated hope I can return the favor after all this is what this sight years ago was all about.

Todd-nice find! Would you mind sharing what the guy suggested to clean it up?

Believe it or not the last thing I would had ever thought of to clean wood. After several of his guys looking at it determining the type of wood they saved me some money by telling me to take warm water with dawn soap and a thick non abrasive cotton cloth or sponge I choose a thick soft sponge and to just dab at it their theory was it would remove the dirt grime and grease but not the paint of the graphics and it certainly did every time I dabbed it pulled so much dirt grease oils grime from the wood without soaking the wood, again this was just a super light cleaning it came out good enough for me I am glad that I did it and hope this info will help someone else in the same situation in the future.