Oiling A New Fretboard

[Davo]

Hi Guys - I have a new ebony fretboard; slotted, tapered, glued to the neck, bound, radiused, sanded and ready for fretting. My question is whether to give it some oil now or if there is a reason to leave this until after fretting? i.e. is a heavy layer of oil in the slots a good thing or does this mess with potential glueing of the frets to tighten up the tone in the future?

[vneckdog]

Hi Guys - I have a new ebony fretboard; slotted, tapered, glued to the neck, bound, radiused, sanded and ready for fretting. My question is whether to give it some oil now or if there is a reason to leave this until after fretting? i.e. is a heavy layer of oil in the slots a good thing or does this mess with potential glueing of the frets to tighten up the tone in the future?

Stew Mack has ebony stain if you have white grain running thru the surface. I am a fan of highly polished fingerboards stained and oiled before fretting. Or you can wait till you have finished the fingerboard so you can clean up the glue if that is your method. Try not to scrape the fingerboard after fretting it is best before fretting and could prevent a rework problem.

[ihocky2]

If your gluing the frets in, you don't want to add oil to the slots. If you are pressing them in, I don't see it causing any harm.

[Nicko_Lps]

Well if your ebony has grayish stripes and they are too visible you had to dye it if the wood is black enough with small stripes that you hardly see'em you can finish it and then apply some fast fret or gibson fretboard oil for some time to keep it black and not dye it.

Personaly i have not dyed my fretboard and it looks like black plastic but you have to have a good quality ebony to do that.