Ebonising?

[Monckyman]

Lo all, my fingerboard is ebonised rosewood which has seen better days. It needs re finishing, but I`m unclear on what materials to use.
My initial thoughts are a decent black paint, topped by a hard wearing satin finish varnish.
Any advice gladly received.
MM

[janmaat]

Oh THAT problem... Well... depends on the state it's in.

You can do what I did to a board that was in REALLY bad shape.

Got a block of perfectly straight mahogany and sanded it down until it was straight... Took about 2 weeks, 2 hours a day, but hey mine was a grand canon!

I then cleaned it with alcohol, primed it, and applied some layers of acrylic, then some yacht varnish. I guess floor board colour would have been better. No problem since but it's still... well... crap wood with paint on it...

Can you post some pictures?

It might be worth thinking about getting a proper finger board.

Edited December 4, 2011 by janmaat

[Grand Wazoo]

Ronseal 5 Year Woodstain Ebony

Does exactly what it says on the tin

[Beer of the Bass]

If it's rosewood, there's no real need to redo the ebonising after the surface has been dressed, I'd say. I've seen a couple of basses with bare rosewood fingerboards which have held up fine for many years, and one of those was an old Kay wearing roundwound gut strings which would be quite hard on the fingerboard.

[velvetkevorkian]

+1 for leaving it as rosewood (if indeed it is rosewood). IME the ebonising process is pretty much cosmetic- a non black fingerboard can look quite striking.

I would expect varnishing it to change the sound as well, maybe?

[Monckyman]

Thanks all, I`ll get some pics up later.
The board isn`t in bad condition,no major pitting or valleys under the string runs etc.
It`s just wearing through to the red(ish) wood underneath.
The Ronseal looks great,I`ll have a good look at that.
MM

[scojack]

Heres another alternative....

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EBONISING-LACQUER-400ml-Aerosol-Chestnut-Woodturning-/180608725580?pt=UK_Crafts_Other_Crafts_EH&hash=item2a0d1e724c"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EBONISING-LACQUER-400ml-Aerosol-Chestnut-Woodturning-/180608725580?pt=UK_Crafts_Other_Crafts_EH&hash=item2a0d1e724c[/url]

[fonzoooroo]

On old instruments, I tend to scrape the old finish off, then leave the wood in an oil finish. That's certainly the easy way.

Otherwise, it's flat back (or again, ideally remove - as the original finish tends to be hugely thick) and then mix black dye into cellulose lacquer. (or dye the wood if it'll take evenly and lacquer over)

As a DIY job for your own bass, I'd reckon you could do a lot worse than a rattle can of Halfords satin black. Again, remove the old finish first, then a few coats of that to build up a bit of thickness, yet leave the grain visible. Cost is minimal, and if it's starting to wear when a string change is due, it's only a wipe with meths, 5 minutes to mask up and another couple of coats... The quantity you'd be applying'll be dry the same day.

[Monckyman]

Thanks for the replies all.
Here is how it looked.









I`ve stripped most of the original black crap off apart from some dark patches where I didn`t want to sand too much until I decided whether to repaint or go commando.
Which looks like this:






I have to say, the Rosewood(guess) looks perfectly nice on it`s own, and may just require a little tung or danish oil to bring out the colour and protect it.




Any advice or thoughts gratefully received.
MM

[fonzoooroo]

That looks pretty much typical of what you tend to find. More likely to be a member of the Mahogany family than rosewood (remember - the whole reason for doing it in the first place was cost.) If it were mine, I'd keep sanding and leave it bare. Raw linseed oil is my preferred treatment, as it's non drying... It just soaks in, with no tendency for stickiness.

[Monckyman]

Thanks Fonz for the advice, I think that`s exactly what I`ll do.