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Has anyone used any black nut material besides corian?

I see the graphtech material, but I don't know anything about it, and the blanks available from SM are a little small for what I need.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Black buffalo horn, readily available as knife handles (scales)
Used some on my Weissenborn copy seems to be holding up well and the strings slide smoothly.
Jeff

Jeff,

I have one I am about to complete and was considering buffalo horn but wondered if there is any difference in tone as opposed to bone. The horn is softer than bone and I was concerned that it might have an effect on the tone of the instrument. Your observations would be very much welcome and appreciated.

Cecil

Hi Cecil,
I have no real way of comparing it with bone tonaly since I have not tried bone on this instrument , but no one has listened to an open note strum and said this is muffled or weak.
I would not call the horn soft, maybe not quite as hard as the hardest bone but well up on things like graphteck, and much harder than the average plastic
I have black horn bridge pins too, wanted a dark look for all the fittings.
Jeff

I used black horn from LMI before and can confirm that it is much softer than bone and I didn't like the results - even though I liked the looks very much. It also polishes beautifully with micro-mesh.

But tone won out and I replaced the nut and saddle with unbleached bone and was glad that I did.

Sorry to not be positive here but I didn't like the stuff and I still have a lot of it here but probably won't use it again.

Sounds like we have encountered different material Hesh.
Wonder if it varies depending on source?

Jeff it most likely does vary in hardness from sheep to sheep. Perhaps my black horn came from a sheep with osteoporosis I agree that it is harder than plastic by far.

Sheep.....shouldn't that be buffalo?

Hey, does anyone know if you can ebonize bone like you can maple? I wonder what submerging the bone is black ink or leather die for a week would do to it. Maybe make the nut and saddle and than submerge it for some time. Pull it out, let it dry and buff. Who knows it may just work.

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Sheep, buffalo - what's the difference - I know ask that to a sheep or a buffalo.......

Rod my friend I tried soaking bone in tea and there was a slight amber color added but it was only at the surface and sanded right off. I soaked it for a couple days but the stain did not penetrate the bone.

I've used buffalo horn on my twin dreads and loved it. It is plenty hard. Don't know about sheep horn, though.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

I've used Ebony and African Blackwood with success at different times....

Old Rio Rosewood (the dark stuff) works nicely and looks good too.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Graph-Tech has nuts in black for acoustics. Although I like bone, Tusq nuts do sound good on electrics. I think they do wear quicker than bone though?
They are listed under Blank Trem Nuts & Slotted Trem Nuts...
http://estore.graphtech.com/gti/aquariu ... sp?CartId=

~ Double Post...

If you want to use steel, you can get gun metal bluing, which looks almost black.

How about Jade? Jade comes in various shades of green, as well as white, black and a bunch of other colors. But let's stop with black.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Some granite comes in black, but with grain/color texture; like Corian, look for offcuts at the local countertop fabricator. Use diamond files for shaping/slotting.

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....

Go to Graphtech's site, they have a ton of sizes. I like the stuff, it can't be beat in terms of low friction. We use phenolic on our basses. It lasts forever, but I think for an angled headstock guitar, Graphtech would be a better choice.

You can dye bone--I use analyne in black--soeak trhe bone overnight--shines to a high polish and sonic properties seem uneffected.

I'be used ebony on a couple of guitars and like it. Ties in nicely with the FB and seems to wear quite well.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Brock,

I mentioned jade because it has amazing "toughness" (not to be confused with "hardness", which will range from 6 to 7 on Mohs scale for jade), and with its interlocked crystalline grain, can successfully be fabricated into a nut or saddle. In fact, jade has been made into tools and jewelry for centuries.

I got a chance to play a guitar made by Grant Goltz with a bone saddle and then the same guitar with a jade saddle - and it confirmed my suspicion that jade will make an excellent saddle. Honestly, I think a jade nut may be more difficult to make than a jade saddle, because of the various string slot widths and the somewhat limited availability/variety of diamond tools. But, whatever tooling we have available in our modern arsenal is far better than what jade carvers have used for centuries.

Disclaimer: I must admit that I am somewhat on a fishing expedition, as I have contacted (through a local Chinese jade importer) a jade fabricator in China who can fabricate jade nut and saddle blanks. I am hoping to get some luthiers interested in using jade, because I cannot meet the $1000 minimum order by myself.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Brock,

What type of sound are you looking for? I've got a little bit of very old, very hard ebony that came off an 80 year old double bass fingerboard that works great for blues type small boxes. If you're interested, I'd be happy to send you some.

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Jimmy Caldwell
http://www.caldwellguitars.com

This is for an electric.

Thanks for the offer. I actually have quite a bit of nice ebony. I just thought that people used that in the past because of the lack of availability of regular nut material. I may give that a shot though... thanks for the tip.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

i was desperate for material once and tried a carbon fibre off-cut.
worked a treat on a bass, gave a dodgy old 80's thing a nice woody tone with loads of sustain, wouldn't hesitate to use it again. very easy to cut too, seemed great.
i asked a few people on olf and they said it was popular a few years ago, but not so much now, no one knew why. maybe it was a trend or whatever - worth a try tho.

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www.theguitarrepairworkshop.com