Loren, please turn your head left and/or right, notice the rather large chip(s) on your shoulder(s), and remove it and/or them. Given the apparent size of the chip(s) on your shoulder(s), you might want to enlist some help lest you strain your back or otherwise injure yourself. Then, once you are throughly de-chipped, please quit reading between the lines of what I or anyone else posts on this forum. It is the C&F Flute Forum after all, not the Inside Loren’s Head Forum. (And don’t bother sending me the URL for the Inside Loren’s Head Forum either because, you know, I’d rather not go there…)
I think that’s all I need to say at this point. Readers of the forum can make their own judgments about the validity of what you or I post here and decide from that whether or not to pay any heed to what we say.
On my Hamilton, I cut pieces of plastic from a plastic bag to place under the pads to protect them.
Also, I use the oil very sparingly. The plastic barriers are basically just an extra precaution; to date, I’ve never gotten any oil on them. You want just barely enough oil to give the bore a sheen when viewed against the light.
On my old 8-key, since the keys are quite simple to remove and replace, I carefully remove the keys prior to oiling.
In both cases, I let the flute sit for a couple of hours after oiling and then wipe out the bore and tone holes to remove the excess oil. Then I left the flute sit overnight before reassembling and playing.
I use cold-pressed linseed oil, which is what Hammy Hamilton recommended.
–James
P.S. I agree with Loren’s warning about aluminum foil: particularly if you have clarinet-type fads which are fishskin over felt, even a tiny slice in the pad will quickly render it unuseable. Leather pads aren’t quite so fragile, but it’s still a Bad Thing to slit or abrade the surface.