Purpleheart Fingerboard

[rugman]

I'm building my first guitar & put a purpleheart fingerboard on the neck. Looks great so far. Anyone know the best way to finish purpleheart? I'd appreciate all the help I can get. Thanks

[skibum5545]

First, purpleheart is DEFINITELY hard enough to go without a hard finish (unlike maple for example). Clean it with naptha, and apply a couple coats of lemon or boiled linseed oil. Lemon smells nice. Don't over-apply, or it will leak for a long time. Go sparing on the oils.

Good luck! It's a beautiful wood, and I'm sure it'll look great on your guitar.

[daveq]

How do you keep the purple heart from turning brown without a UV inhibitor? I'm not saying that I know the answer - just curious how other people are doing this.

[Dugz Ink]

If you want Purpleheart to retain that "perfect" color, then you really need to put some finish on it. Otherwise, as you noted, it can loose some of it's purple tint. Also, some of the oil finishes will make it a very dark purple... if you can even get the oil finish to solidify.

Purpleheart is so oily that it can be a trick to finish, depending on how "cured" it is.

I would strongly recommend surfing the net for every article that you can find that specifically mention putting finish on Purpleheart, because (from my experience) it is a unique wood with unique qualities and quarks.

D~s

[chrisb0109]

I will be building a guitar in november that will have a purpleheart fretboard and front to the body.

I would be interested in knowing the best finishing method as well.

[LukeR]

The only thing I would add is make sure (if your are using it) that it is real lemon oil. I bought some Kyser Dr Stringfellow 'Lem-oil' which is apparently a Lemon scented oil, not real lemon oil. It works fine on my fingerboards, but i have never used it on a fingerboard that hasnt already had something on it.

I dont know if it would have any effect (or have any differnce to real lemon oil) but maybe someone else here knows more about it- its probably fine, but just drawing it to your attention.

Luke

[Dugz Ink]

I found this on a clunky looking "wood" forum.

I agree with his use of files (instead of coarse sandpaper); been there, done that.

But I didn't know about this finish at Stew-Mac.

About finishing Purple Heart and Padauk;

Both of these woods are almost self-finishing, because of their inherent high resin content. The bare wood can be polished up to a gloss, which in many cases is all you need. When I use Purple Heart and Padauk for guitar fingerboards, I bring them up to a gloss, and then give them one or two light coats of a hardening polyurethane "oil" finish. I use Stewart-MacDonald's Fingerboard Oil, which is a special blend for instrument use, but Minwax or Olympic Oil-Based polyurethane will work too. The finish will significantly darken the color (although it's still quite beautiful), but then it will brighten up somewhat over the next week or two.

By the way, here's my favorite technique for smoothing woods hard like Purple Heart, Padauk, Ebony, etc. up to a gloss:

1. Do most of the shaping with sharp files, not coarse sandpaper. It's faster, and doesn't leave deep random scratches. Finish up the smoothing with a Smooth or even a #2 Swiss file.

2. Fine sand with 320 and 400 Stearated paper on a rubber block, only in the direction of the grain, to remove the last file marks.

3. Finish up with ScotchBrite-style woven abrasives. I usually use Green, then Gray, then White. Use them over a rubber block, with pressure and elbow grease, again only in the direction of the grain. The White Scotchbrite will take the wood up to a mirror gloss.

You can go crazy trying to polish ebony with fine sandpaper. I understand that this is because the ebony dust is quite hard and abrasive by itself, and will embed itself in the sandpaper, cutting coarser than the sandpapers' abrasive. I think the Scotchbrite works so well here because the open weave allows the dust to get out.

I hope this helps!

[samoht]

what's elbow grease? can i buy it from stew mac?