Rosewood board worm holes...

chinjazz

chinjazz

Sep 11, 2002
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Atlantic Beach, FL
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#1
I just was finishing up putting dot markers on a Rosewood Board and under close up inspection I noticed some worm holes.

2CF429BD-1D7D-4F6C-9F82-3A93A5F69A03.jpeg


Should I fill it with rosewood dust and some CA?

I never needed to hide these character marks before, and basically thought I’d ask all the pros what they do :)

Thanks
 
#4
Frederiek said:
Could you point out where the holes are?
Click to expand...
Hi Frederiek,

I'm not sure if they're actually worm holes, but maybe something like that (need to get my luthier vocabulary in order).

They are small chatter looking marks along these "swipes", or patterns.. Just thinking it would be nice to have them be more smooth and less. Up close it's easier to see them. Here's another few pics..

11th fret going back to 8 below the dot, a little bit above it also:

11thFretClose.jpg


Farther back, less noticeable but it's part of the swipe mark.
11thFretBack.jpg


Can see a bit more of it here up between frets 3-4
4thToThirdFret.jpg




Bear in mind I haven't yet sanded this board at all yet since getting it from LMI (preslotted/radiused). I checked it for straightness, and radius, and it looks good to me (its on a neck). It just might be me being nit picky, and It just needs some more final sanding (300 to 2000-3000).

The stage I'm at is "getting ready" or prepping the board for fretting, so I want to do everything in prep for that. Address issues, etc..

Thanks!
 
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#6
In the same ball park relative to stage I'm in, I was checking out a old post by @Rickett Customs:

How To: Fretting, with Rickett Custom

And he conditions the board prior to fretting, and my only concern there is wax getting in the slot itself.
I realize this gets into one of the fairly fretboard debatable subjects of going raw on RW, or other wise.

I'm on the fence in this realm, wouldn't be if it were a maple board :)
 
#6
rwkeating said:
That reminds me of "grain reversal" that I was told about in this post. What type of wood surface "defect" is this? (padauk) I have a picture there that you can compare yours to.
Click to expand...

Thanks for digging up that thread link. Maybe it is just that. I see Bruce suggested epoxy as a fix, I would think a light wiping of CA might just do the trick to at minimum smooth it up a bit. I'm already using it to go around some of the dot marker edges.
 
#7
Maybe the grain of this particular piece is a bit more open than you're used to. I think I'd try and sand it to see if it's the pores of the wood or just the surface finish from the supplier. I wouldn't risk getting anything in those fret slots before fretting.

I don't quite understand what is meant by 'grain reversal' so I can't say anything about that :)
 
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#8
Frederiek said:
Maybe the grain of this particular piece is a bit more open than you're used to. I think I'd try and sand it to see if it's the pores of the wood or just the surface finish from the supplier. I wouldn't risk getting anything in those fret slots before fretting.

I don't quite understand what is meant by 'grain reversal' so I can't say anything about that :)
Click to expand...

I’ll check out a bit of light sanding to inspect more (thanks to @Jisch as well)..

I’m glad my intuition is in check on getting anything in the slots - Thanks for your advice :)
 
#14
I had better results reducing my grain reversal by scraping rather than sanding. I was making a fretless fingerboard so scraping was an available option. I finished it with Danish oil wet sanded it. The slurry that created helped too. Keep in mind you final finish you are going to use and its ability to fill/smooth out those areas.

Edit: forgot to add ... when the frets are installed and the strings put on, those areas aren't even going to be visible. If they still are, they won't be after a few months of playing :)
 
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#15
Nah,wormholes which are not uncommon in rosewood, are actual pin sized holes in the wood. What you have there is tear out. Either the grain reverses in those areas, someone fed the board through backwards, or the cutters were dull. If you sand it a bit (careful not to sand a new or uneven radius into it) it’ll take care of a lot of it. Then once it’s all fretted,oiled and has a couple of years of oxidation on it you won’t even notice.
 
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