Quick chemistry lesson. The acidic "essence" of acids (hydoxonium ions) are very poor attackers of natural materials. I used to demonstrate this by pouring concentrated hydrochloric acid, fuming and pungent straight from the bottle into my cupped hand and I'd leave it there for 30 seconds or so (till the fumes got too much to bear) before tipping it into my coffee mug diluting it with water and passing it around the class to taste (those were the days!!)
Nasty acids were 1) strong oxidisers e.g. nitric acid 2) dehydrating agents e.g. phosphoric acid or 3) both e.g. sulphuric acid. It is unlikely that it is "acidic" attack which causes problems with neoprene (a polymer which has been used for over 50 years - the chlorine atoms in its structure make it more chemically resistant to chemical attack) The drawback with neoprene is that it is mechanically weak and needs vulcanising and/or additives to make it useful. I wonder just what is going on here? Has anyone performed any controlled studies or even simply recorded casual observations a with respect to the shelf-life of various samples with a) mineral oil or b) olive oil? While we're on the subject I'm still not convinced that mineral oil (being hydrophobic) can penetrate wood as effectively as, say, olive oil which has a hydrophilic end on its hydrophobic tail. I'm too long away from the chemistry bench to know the latest thinking on these things a is there more information out there waiting to be shared? As aye Anthony -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
