Same red oak stock. Soaked bits of steel wool in vinegar for 2 days. This is 10 minutes after brushing it on. Great for fretboards! Turned my maple neck nice and gray too. This relic build will be cool. Who needs wenge?
Read more…
Here's how it turned out. The superglue worked a treat! Had to re-ebonize bits that got sanded / filed during fretting but that was easy. Even with extra labor this went from blank to fretted, dressed and dotted in under an hour.
That's pretty much the way I did it too. Of course, the side dots are easier to deal with. For the fboard dots, I played around with using tinted epoxy, sanding it flush, then ebonizing again, but that was messy. I also tried it with solder but had trouble getting it to stick very well, and gluing lead solder to wood seemed kinda weird to me... but now that I have a little more patience, I may try it again. Ebonizer does some cool things to cherry too... or any species with a lot on tannins. I can't wait to see some of your "relic" builds.
I've been thinking about the fret dots. I'm going to use bamboo skewers with a drop of superglue on the top. I'll glue them in, re-ebonize around the holes and fret slots, sand them from the back of the fb and then glue to the neck.
I'm using the skewers again because their diameter is exactly that of one of my drill bits. Hardly any glue needed around the sides - just on the back.
Cool. I have played around a bit with homemade ebonizers. Rusty hardware/screws work great too. But I get frustrated when I need to do dots or inlays and ...unless I let it soak deep to the point of warping.. most any sanding reveals the original color and re-applying ebonizes the inlaid wood dots. I I managed to do a couple of fboards with okay results, but lots of labor & anxiety. I haven't tried it, but I have heard that applying a bark powder tea solution between ebonizing applications will raise the tannin content, raise the grain, and allow the ebonizer to penetrate deeper. Ah, the cbg science lab!
Comments
wow amazing stuff, thanx
Here's how it turned out. The superglue worked a treat! Had to re-ebonize bits that got sanded / filed during fretting but that was easy. Even with extra labor this went from blank to fretted, dressed and dotted in under an hour.
That is just the kind of thing I like.
That's pretty much the way I did it too. Of course, the side dots are easier to deal with. For the fboard dots, I played around with using tinted epoxy, sanding it flush, then ebonizing again, but that was messy. I also tried it with solder but had trouble getting it to stick very well, and gluing lead solder to wood seemed kinda weird to me... but now that I have a little more patience, I may try it again. Ebonizer does some cool things to cherry too... or any species with a lot on tannins. I can't wait to see some of your "relic" builds.
I've been thinking about the fret dots. I'm going to use bamboo skewers with a drop of superglue on the top. I'll glue them in, re-ebonize around the holes and fret slots, sand them from the back of the fb and then glue to the neck.
I'm using the skewers again because their diameter is exactly that of one of my drill bits. Hardly any glue needed around the sides - just on the back.
Cool. I have played around a bit with homemade ebonizers. Rusty hardware/screws work great too. But I get frustrated when I need to do dots or inlays and ...unless I let it soak deep to the point of warping.. most any sanding reveals the original color and re-applying ebonizes the inlaid wood dots. I I managed to do a couple of fboards with okay results, but lots of labor & anxiety. I haven't tried it, but I have heard that applying a bark powder tea solution between ebonizing applications will raise the tannin content, raise the grain, and allow the ebonizer to penetrate deeper. Ah, the cbg science lab!
So simple and cheap! Like me!
Awesome Craig!
I did a uke like that turned out real nice ;-)
yup....