Official Luthiers Forum!

Has anybody used bloodwood as a fingerboard or bridge? If so, how did it work out for you?

Is there any special type of sealer needed to keep the fingerboard clean and bring out the red color?

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Reguards,

Ken H

I have never tried because of the bleed issue. I don't like using anything kind of sealer or finish other than linseed oil on my fretboards because of the wear issue and I would think it would have to be finished in some form to prevent the oils from transferring. Sure would look nice though.

I thought I remembered a discussion of just this topic. Rick uses Waterlox on his fingerboards. Go to this linkhttp://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10102&t=14758&p=210052&hilit=waterlox+fingerboards#p210052

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Bloodwood does not hold fret tangs as well as the usual ebony and rosewood species. I'm not sure what the sealing and bleed issues are; when I used it I didn't seal and haven't noticed any finish bleed.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

From my very limited experience, I've used it as binding as well as rosette marquetry and it works just as rosewood. No bleed with french polish.

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Build log

A number of the planes I've made have bloodwood soles and one is all bloodwood. Never had any problem with bleeding or color transfer to the wood I am planing.

Paul

I've made a few flatsawn fretboards, one of them will end up on a 5-string bass. As hard or harder than ebony and rings like a bell.

Over time they are darkening up nicely, tending toward Burgundy.

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....

Ken, there's a thread on the Luthierforum with the title "GRANDSON'S GUITAR", from Grant Goltz, with a Bloodwood fingerboard (and I think bridge too.) Rather than post Grant's photos here, just hop over there and do a search by that title (including the quotation marks.)

Looks pretty cool! You'll have to ask Grant how his 15 year old (probably 17 by now) grandson's guitar looks now.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Thanks for the tip Dennis! That was an awesome guitar that Grant built for his grandson. Some really unique bracing also!

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Reguards,

Ken H

Hi, I recently used a bloodwood fingerboard on a classical. It has tight pores, is hard and dense and has a good feel to it. For better or worse, the color really stands out!

I had no problems with color bleeding using shellac, and found the frets seated well and are holding just fine. I was going to make a matching bridge out of bloodwood too, but the blank I had to work with weighed a lot, so I made it out of some lighter indian rosewood.