Getting rid of smell

[JoeJoe]

Bought a pair of binoculars off eBay the other day.

Very impressed with the quality (they were only £4), but they are covered in what feel like pretty good quality rubber which has a very strong smell of petroleum. After handling them your hands smell as if you've just finished playing with an engine for the whole afternoon...

They are brand new, and are part of a batch that was originally given in a goodie bag to corporate customers/visitors of one of the Forumla 1 teams, so I cannot believe that they would have tolerated this.

I left them out of their case for a couple of days in the hope that the smell will go away, but it hasn't...

Any idea what to do?

TIA.

[tabbypurr]

The only ways to remove volatiles are:

1. higher temperature
2. solvent wipe to remove surface volatiles

NT

[JoeJoe]

Thanks for that.

I gave it a good wipe with some (nice smelling) hand wipes, and whilst it still smells, it is almost bearable now. Hopefully time will help too.