Fretboard sanding

[Diggydude]

I bought a kit on sale with a damaged ebony fretboard- some poorly filled cracks and obvious super glue, nothing I haven't faced before. To make things easier, I removed the frets (I'll install stainless steel frets later) but this process chipped more than it has before, leaving the board with deep chips on nearly all the fret slots.

It would have taken ages to sand them out with a radius block so i attacked the board with a random orbital sander. pretty quickly (thankfully) i realised that it wasn't helping much, it was chipping more bits off in the process. I decided to try by hand, no matter how long that would take, but it was doing the same- breaking chips off.

Thinking it may be too dry and brittle, I put some fretboard hydrator on to hopefully give it some strength back. Since then, i have not sanded it.



What's the best way to sort this out? Hours of sanding with a radius block?

For the future, is there a way of minimising the chipping when removing frets?

[Rabbit]

I don't know how much meat you have to play with with the finger board, but what I did with my fingerboard was put some marine epoxy on the board with some timber treatment designed for the epoxy which makes it thinner. After half an hour (the epoxy can take 5 hours to dry), I wiped off the excess. I repeated this, which gave me a stabilised finger board that I could then sand and very lightly buff to remove some scratches I'd managed to get on it. It still has that warm feel that varnishes take away, but a somewhat more durable surface. I do know that some people flood their finger boards with thin cyanoacrylate, but that seems to me to be way too fumey.

[wazkelly]

Hi Diggydude, that looks just like the fretboard on my de-fretted Artist P Bass. I was aiming for a Fretless and used Timber Mate to fill fret slots and then nearly died from all the toxic fumes through applying multiple coats of super glue. Not going down that path ever again and highly discourage anyone using the stuff. Epoxy would have been quicker, safer, and much better overall.

Back to your neck. It is so hard removing frets without tearing out small bits of timber, and once out there is no way it can be put back in.

From here the question is what type of fretboard finish were you considering?

Lemon oil or similar will leave it pitted unless you use a filler and then you have to wonder how they will react with each other.

High gloss like a Ric or Maple Fender perhaps? This would be my choice as it will be the easiest once you have reinstalled the frets. Only then can you contemplate filling the tear outs with anything otherwise you risk filling fret slots too. Timber mate might do the trick but so will thick layers of whatever type of lacquer or finish you use. Don't fret about the frets too much as you have to polish them up anyways and that is when you delicately sand off the finish on the face of each and every one of them.

Cheers, Waz

[Diggydude]

My plan was just a hydrating oil finish straight onto the wood but I may have to do it differently...

I do have a fret saw so I'm able to recut them if they get filled/too shallow.

I'll keep these alternatives in mind but I think I'll just be patient and sand it down by hand with gentle sand paper. It may take a while, but I'm in no rush to finish it.