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Hi all,

I bought some very cheap low grade ebony blanks thinking they'd be useful for early builds. I don't mind the streaking etc but they look like they've been splattered with oil and it goes right through the wood. still visible after applying lemon oil and black spirit stain.any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

That is called mineralization. It is usually composed of calcium carbonate. You could try removing it from the surface with an acidic solution like C-L-R or white vinegar.

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John

Acid solutions will take it off but be careful, I am building with a set of nice EIR that had great figure but some minor mineral spotting which I tried to remove with some safe acid that I had (Modified salt of HCL). The spots came out fine but it started to lighten up the overall color of the rosewood where I had applied it so now that side will become the inside of the guitar. What I ended up doing and had success with, was using distilled water and just wiping it on the spots several times. By daylight, I am an industrial water treatment guy so I know that water is the universal solvent, but make sure it's distilled or DI water, not hard water from the tap. You want to remove the mineral spotting which is most likely calcium carbonate based, which is why it reacts with acid. Using hard water is just throwing more calcium and magnesium into the wood, especially if you have really hard well water. If just plain old DI or distilled doesn't quite do it, then go ahead with the CLR which is actually oxalic acid I believe, but dilute it down with the water first. And come to think of it, oxalic acid may actually intensify color removal from the wood, you might even try vinegar which is acetic acid and I believe would be less aggressive at color change than the oxalic.

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Kurt Thomas

"There's a first time for everything even if you do it by mistake."

Very timely. Thanks!

Don't mess with Oxalic acid... it is used to bleach wood.

You may try Hydrochloric acid but I don't know how it will affect the wood's coloring.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Thanks all.i tried white wine vinegar after John's suggestion as it was all I had. It worked but did lighten the wood but I don't really mind as it's quite a characterfull piece anyway.

Hey Mike - Some great suggestions here already.

However you go at this you might want to treat an additional piece of scrap exactly the same way and then use this piece as a finish mule applying finish how you intend to to see what the results of your labor are. Might save you some trouble down the road.

I wasnt planning on putting any finish on, do you finish ebony fingerboards?

No but folks nearly always finish ebony head plates, back plates, heel caps, etc. Additionally folks do finish the sides of fret boards helping to make the side markers pop. Don't think that you mentioned how you plan to use the ebony so I'm trying to cover as many applications as I can.

I darken ebony fretboards with alcohol soluble black aniline dye.

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John

Are you sure all this was necessary? I've often found that it all goes away when you put oil on the fingerboard.

I think a lot of people do this, in fact LMI sells a special dye designed to darken fingerboards because some customers must have jet black ebony... the dye is meant to cover the streaks found in West African ebony.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I have found the same thing on the boards I've had.

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"I've been had again"
Tim Benware
Creedmoor, NC

What sort of oil? Howard's Wax N' Feed doesn't seem to make much difference.

As I said lemon oil made no difference.

If you already put wax or oil on the boards you need to remove it with strong solvents. The so called "special fingerboard dye" is not so special it is actually "Fiebing leather dye" even available at Walmart. The oil base version for some reason ends up looking blacker (if there's such a word) than the water based formula. But it will only work if it can be absorbed into the wood surface--- and it does work very well.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I use Teak Oil, and I don't use it often. I think most players obsess about how the board looks and put too much oil on the board. Cleaning the fingerboard with naphtha may also darken some of those mineralizations. It may not get it all the way out, and you have to decide whether and what to do.