Notes on latest exotic species.

I am pretty fortunate to live close to a couple of really good exotic lumber companies. Even so, I've have stuck to traditional hardwoods like ash, cedar and sitka spuce for bodies and maple and rosewood for fingerboards. Unfortunate for me however is that with the economy being as it is, they are not re-ordering rosewood till demand goes back up. I bought the last piece locally available 5 months ago and while I still have some left, I am conserving it for specific builds.

This has left a bit of a need to fill so I've decided to begin experimenting with other species.

The latest is leopard wood. I've not worked with it before but did a little bit of reading up on it. The odd grain structure had me a little worried about what the hand feel would be like and also how difficult was it going to be to work with. Here is a picture of one of the near final first fret board.

Here are some of my observations:

The grain structure. The lengthwise grain will splinter out fairly easily and so exposed sides would not make this suitable for fret boards without the binding. The surface however, once sealed, sands up nicely and the porous light spot grains feel seamless with the contrasting grain. In all, it has a very nice feel once finished. I really wasn't sure in the early stages that it would work out beyond looks. I sealed and colored it with shellac thinned out with alcohol and lacquer based sanding sealer also thinned out with thinner both applied with a cloth in multiple coats.

Planing the wood requires you take it a bit slow. I took minimal depth of cut passes on the surface and joiner planes. The edges likes to tear out much like curly maple does and so take it slow and a little at a time. The wood saws nicely. Almost as nicely as mahogany. When cutting frets, back the cuts or else you will get tear outs a plenty.

I milled up enough for 3 fret boards. I only did this one up but will definitely finish the other 2.

Replies

rockcity October 12, 2010 at 8:30am

Great looking fretboard..
Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates October 12, 2010 at 6:49am

Where do you get that from? From what I see, Clarinets are made from that wood (not ebony).

-WY

Skeesix said:
Neat wood. I like granadillo for fretboards - very similar to rosewood, but much cheaper and not endangered.
Skeesix October 12, 2010 at 3:58am

Neat wood. I like granadillo for fretboards - very similar to rosewood, but much cheaper and not endangered.
California1967 October 11, 2010 at 10:57pm

That's really cool looking!
Don Goguen October 11, 2010 at 10:46pm

I would normally agree with you. I too prefer oil on fret boards. With this kind of grain structure however, I just didn't think oil would net the right feel. Here is a sample of the raw grain.

The spots are very porous and while it would soak oil like a sponge, wouldn't get the same feel you would with many hardwoods. What I did however is sand back down to the grain with the first four coats I applied. This did much to return the "wood" feel to it.
Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates October 11, 2010 at 10:31pm

I have used Bacote and like it. Its kind of an oily wood much like olive wood. Takes oil-based finishes (Tung and Linseed oil) very well. Makore is also good but kinda earthy. I also used and old piece of walnut and it was softer than I thought. Also harder to plane as it caught and chipped the grain.

I don't usually seal the fretboard surface as I like to put oil on it.

-WY

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