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So, I bought this billet about 13 years ago, and just started working on it for my guitar build. The first picture shows the original surface, and the second picture shows what it looks like after working on it with my Wagner Safe-T-Planer and a hand plane. My question is about the stripes that are still present even after removing a fair amount of material. They seem to go quite deep. Do I just need to keep going, or is this billet defective? Is this normal? Have I perhaps stored it improperly, or perhaps my technique is wrong?

Hi Colleen,
It's not defective, it just has curly grain. Stop using the planer and start sanding it.

Nice fingerboard, I’m jealous!

this needs to be sanded your plane blades will not cut well against the grain

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

It's tear out. Very hard to plane that curly grain without getting tear out. Sand it as Clay and others have said. Drum sander if you have it.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks, everyone. Sander it is. Looks like I bought my RIGID belt/spindle sander just in time!

Colleen--

I'm not trying to be a wet blanket, but as useful as the Ridgid belt/spindle sander is, it is going to be tough to get a consistent thickness on a fingerboard with one of those. I think everybody is nudging you toward a drum sander. A great choice for someone getting geared up for guitar building is a Jet 10-20 drum sander. Many of us use something larger, but the 10-20 will do just about anything you need a drum sander for when building guitars. Sorry to recommend spending more money, but this is one of those situations where you will either be doing it by hand, very slowly, or tooling up.

Yeah, I REALLY don’t have $2,500 to spend right now, although I agree with you it would be great to have a drum sander. I got the top and back thicknessed where I bought my wood, should’ve thought to get the sides thicknessed at the time as well. There may be a woodworking shop near me that would be willing to thickness things for me, otherwise I’ll be doing it the very slow way by hand…

Watch for a used Jet 10-22 Drum Sander they go for about $500-600 Used. There's two for sale right now in my local Craigslist

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First thing I checked for. None available. I’ll keep an eye out.

I have a drum sander but when I am too lazy to go downstairs to the garage, I thin fingerboards with a toothed plane. I swear it is as fast and no that much of a workout, provided the plane and blade are good and sharp. I use a Veritas jack with the coarsest teeth blade. Then very high angle smoother (60 deg), scraper plane or scraper.

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Build log

+1 to Alexandru. Toothed plane and scraper will make pretty quick work of it. Sanding by hand with a piece of 50 grit sanding belt on a wood block works too. Brush the dust away frequently to prevent clogging. Then scrape to remove the sanding scratches (much faster than sanding through grits)

Sanding by hand with a piece of 60 grit sandpaper on a wood block works quickly also, which I discovered last evening. And I’m saving the dust, it’ll come in handy for inlay work. I’m surprised how quickly I can sand away the high spots. And yes, scraper after, that’s the ticket. Maybe down the road I’ll be lucky enough to get a drum sander, but for now I can get by without.

Hi Colleen,
If you find an inexpensive hand plane or buy an extra blade for one you have, you can make a toothing plane by notching the blade with a dremel tool.
This video explains how a toothing plane works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9jVI1CDuNQ

The reason I like belts is because they don't shed abrasive particles, so they last almost forever. Sandpaper usually wears out pretty quickly. But be sure to get the kind without velcro backing, because that tends to round over the edges on things.

Colleen. I cut fingerboards, and sides, and backs like that all the time without ANY sanders. I did take some wood in for re-sawing, and they have a sander, and for about 20 bucks they sanded backs and bellies and sides down to 1/8" because that is as low as it will go. That is an option if a mill is nearby: mine is near enough; 20 miles. But they probably have a minimum, and that is why I brought glued up backs and bellies in!

A toothed plane blade can work; but what I often find useful is a coarse file. I like a half-round for roughing. I like the Iwasaki ones, but even cheap coats files will work. I have even used small finger planes for roughing. Being narrow, you don't seem to get as much tear out, and they can dig in some. Then I might go with a toothed plane, and then a scraper. Even a toothed plane can be a problem, even on ribbon figured wood like sycamore, Padauk, and even some mahogany, like the stuff I've been working with. I use plane blades as scrapers. They are big, and easy to handle.

I bought some 3/4" blanks at stores for fretboards, thinking I can get 2. It is easier to buy 1/4" and not do anything with them.

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Why be normal?

For many people who build in small volume, there's little reason to buy ebony billets. Excellent fretboard banks are available from many sources and save a lot of work if you don't have big machines. After 100+ instruments, I've never bought a billet, even though I've got some machines. Now that you know how bad your situation is, I volunteer to take your billet off off your hands, and even trade an ebony guitar blank or two, since I will be driving from the States to Innisfil in a couple of weeks.

Thanks, I think I’ll keep it. I’ll be making a trip to the store where I bought my wood week after next, because I need some mahogany for neck and tail blocks (not to mention a new neck blank - see my build post), and I’m thinking of getting a rosewood fingerboard blank for this guitar. It’s a gift for my oldest son, and I don’t think he’d mind a rosewood fingerboard, and I’d kinda like to keep this ebony one for my next guitar (which will be mine).

With the current ebony supply, any solid black ebony should be treasured, IMHO. If I can find it in any form, I will resaw blanks as necessary. Another consideration is the waste. If the wood is well seasoned, I resaw it much thinner than the 5/16" to 3/8" thick than many ebony fingerboard blanks are cut. Most of my fingerboards are no thicker than 0.225" when finish planed or sanded.

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John

A properly sharpened drill press planer should leave a surface that can be scraped smooth fairly quickly. I prefer the 'hard' scrapers, made of thick tool steel, as they don't heat up as fast as card scrapers and the edge holds longer. You do generally need a grinder to sharpen them, though. I'd love to have a room full of ebony that looked like that.