Brazilian Cherry For Fingerboard?

[DC Ross]

Hey all,

I'm planning my first project & was thinking about using some 2 1/4" Brazilian Cherry that I have left over from a flooring project for the fingerboard. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Edited June 11, 2007 by DC Ross

[jmrentis]

You can definately try it, your wood might actually be Jatoba as in this Jatoba link. I've seen it called Brazillian cherry by a number of sellers. If it is jatoba you have, it is extremely tough and dense wood, not easy to work with, but couldn't imagine it being tougher than other fingerboards like ebony and such. You can try it, I personally would avoid using it in large sizes, but for fingerboard or neck laminates it works fine. I made a neck blank of hard maple and jatoba and cut it into 3 necks, just planed it and scarfed the headstock on one and so far the jatoba has caused only little problems. It hand planed so so, but that is probably more to do with how the grain is in my piece than the overall workability of the wood. Anyhow, I know not many people use the stuff as I only have seen it mentioned a couple times, but I believe it would work for a fingerboard. If it's actually a cherry then I do not know, as I have no experience with it, only jatoba also known as brazillian cherry. Best of luck to you, maybe get us some pics if you can't tell or want opinions.