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Hope the thread title isn't too cryptic but here's the problem. I have inserted some raw poplar fret markers (long story as to how they came to be there) in an ebony fret board and all went OK until I began to sand the fret board to finally level the markers and the dark ebony dust has turned the poplar a muddy dark blechch! and I can't see a way to get the poplar to stay light in color and sand the fret board flat. I can scrape and it seems to be almost ok but any sanding and it's over.

If I scrape or sand much more I'll lose the radius (it's a Martin kit fret board). I even tried staining the poplar but it just got uglier. Any suggestions?

Larry


EDIT - Probably going to bail out on the idea and get some pearl inlay unless there is an idea that will fly. I can only see the problem getting worse with wear and can see no way (without acrylizing the wood - too late?) to get a decent seal on the wood. Not looking forward to drilling out the mess but can't see another way.

LarryLarryH38753.3977083333

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That's why shell gets used for markers...if it were my guitar, I'd remove them and use shell of some sort, or recon stone etc.

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You could try naptha ?

try rubbing on a thin layer of shellac and then as you put more shellac on it reactivates the previous later of shellac and removes it usually pulling out the sanding dust with it.
You can also try sanding to a higher grit so that the scratch marks are so small that they will not hold any ebony dust.

Thanks for the tips - as always very helpful but this time I'm bailing out. Thought it would be a nice look to have some nice warm wood as fret markers but my skills are too limited to begin messing with the fret board too much.

Got my pearl dots on the way.

Thanks again

Larry

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Thank You and Best To All

Along the same lines, I'm making my own rosette tiles and when I try to sand the tiles level, all the black dust stains the light colored maple. Any ideas on how to prevent this? The rosette really looks nice until I try to level it.

John

[QUOTE=John Elshaw] Along the same lines, I'm making my own rosette tiles and when I try to sand the tiles level, all the black dust stains the light colored maple. Any ideas on how to prevent this? The rosette really looks nice until I try to level it.

John[/QUOTE]

Keep in mind this only really applies to thin purfling lines on rosettes, but: sanding with coarse grits (say 80, maybe 120) won't give you fine enough dust to get into the grain, and what little does get it should be removable with a bit of naphta or distilled water (if you've got woods that bleed colour). Fine grit sanding dust loves getting quite stuck in spruce; the stuff in coarse pattern sanding stuff should be removable. After that, well, scrapers. For what little that's worth.Mattia Valente38753.6381597222

Sand the inlay/rosette flush working to your finer grits(ie. 320) and then gently scrape it clean. A razor blade or finely tuned scraper works well.

For fingerboard position markers the oil from your hands will eventually darken the wood and probably defeat their purpose - although a light coat of shellac over the dots should help.

a tip i was taught when sanding rosettes, was to sand from the outside of the rosette in towards the soundhole, if you do it in single strokes and de-dust the sand paper after each pass it is very effective technique for minimizing spruce stainage,

paddy