Polishing A Rosewood Fretboard

[fguihen]

I have a fender strat that when new had a nice shiny rosewood fretboard. After a year or two of playing, despite oiling with bore oil twice a year, it has lost its luster.

I want to bring back the shine but need to confirm the correct method that wont damage my guitar.

I was going to touch it up with wire wool.

Would i be better with a very fine sand paper?

[Linny]

0000 grade steel wool will do it. A soft toothbrush can be used to clean it with a little oil too.

[FireFly]

I recommend cleaning the fretboard with a stiff toothbrush, and making sure you get all the grease and gunk out. If you want your board to be shiny again, maybe some bees wax would help. I can't recommend abrasives without a refret or some kind of fretwork, as the frets will get scraped, or you won't get close enough to the frets to do a good job.

[WezV]

i would also recommend the 0000 wire wool, but not all 0000 wire wool is created equal! Liberon is great stuff for this, i have used others which were too abrasive

[Prostheta]

I use the finest wool I can find, make a finger sized ball and dip it in a little lemon oil for cleaning. Always in the grain direction. For the sides of the frets I use a rag twisted and dipped in the same. Haven't managed to find a source of fine oil-free wool in Finland yet.

Afterwards, I condition rosewood using a cotton tipped ear bud soaked with linseed oil. Lemon oil is a cleaner and not a conditioner unlike what manufacturers would tell you.

[brian d]

Wez, could you explain how you polish the fretboard with 0000 wool? How do you get even polishing right up to the fret while polishing perpendicular to it?

TIA

Brian.

[VesQ]

What grit of sandpaper 0000 steel wool equals ?

[Prostheta]

I would be reticent to compare sandpaper to steel wool. At the higher grades, steel wool has more of a burnishing action (that might not be the correct term) and creates a more satiny feel than the cutting action of sandpaper. For Rosewood and similar oily woods you'll find higher grades of paper will quickly load up with dust and become useless, plus will just leave dull dusty crap everywhere. Steel wool drags dust out of the pores and brings out the shine.