Just to clarify "flame polished" on acrylic was a metafor, meaning
the edge on acrylic that looks like flame polished on glass. Since
acrylic goes limp at about 225F and chars at about 450F (like paper),
unless someone has slid something by me, it can't be flame polished.
It is normally polished with buffing wheels a lot like glass but a lot
faster.
The image of the project had gone away by the time I saw it, but my
light weight experience growing up with magic effects and illusions
suggests this is being made a lot harder than it should be.
Unless the glass is pretty much held in place, the oil is not going
to work as it will get all over everything. And is pretty much not
needed, I suspect. If nothing else, you need to go to one of the
places that cuts and grinds and polishes glass for table tops and
handle some of their samples of edge finishing and see how closely they
fit together.

Bob May wrote:
Glass can be had in waterwhite if needed but I'd rather use the plain green
glass for this trick as it will tend to hinder the viewing of the oil on the
glass surface as the viewer would tend to understand green glass a lot
better and when the edge disappears due to the oil, he'll be more believing
of the trick.
A flame polished edge of an acrylic sheet won't be flat enough to do the
oiling trick on the edges either so you need to polish them with the
abrasive techniques and make sure that the edge is good and square - you
will still have the location of the edge marked with a V if you don't get
that edge square.

--
Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?