Can I clean and BLO the wedge and throat in the same way or will that throw things out?
scrub the throat with something that you can use on it without damaging - like a plastic bristle brush, use boiled linseed oil as the cleaner (in fact, over the entire plane). Wipe the linseed oil off of the bed and top of the wedge fingers and apply paste wax to the rest of the plane at the same time and then wipe it off - filling all of the end grain EXCEPT
- don't apply wax to the bed
- don't apply it to the top of the wedge fingers or the abutments (the part of the plane where the wedge fingers contact pushing forward
.If you do, it's not the end of the world, but no reason to.
Wipe the excess oil off of the bed and the wedge fingers and excess paste wax off of the rest.
to the extent that you can, you want all end grain whether it's older or not to be filled as it is the primary source of fast moisture change in planes and no matter how old the plane is, being able to breathe through the end grain is no good.
The linseed oil that's not also waxed over and wiped off will dry in a day or two and you'll appreciate the grip that it has.
You can wax every other part of the wedge, including the parts that contact the iron - there is no reason why you
wouldn't want them to be treated with oil and wax in combination.
The wax will prevent the oil from ever being sticky - it's just the two key spots where you don't really want wax.
This is kind of like french polishing in a way - if you're french polishing, you can oil the surface and then immediately being applying shellac into linseed oil before transitioning to something non drying. There is no reason not to apply wax into the wet oil or wait for it to dry and allow it to become sticky.
the reason to wax the rest of the plane over the oil with some kind of petroleum solvent paste wax is that it will help the oil dry faster, and it will also go far in helping to prevent mold eating the oil.
I think it can be brought back in to use.
