fingerboard sanding grit?

[peter havriluk]

I appreciate the advice and suggestions I've gotten so far. Moving right along.....

I spent a few hours this evening happily sanding away at a fingerboard I am making. So far, so good, it seems. The fret slots are cut and the fingerboard is tapered in width. I sanded the fingerboard crown in with a shaped block like the ones Stew-Mac sells and a whole lot of effort, using 80-grit sandpaper, then with 150, 320, and 500-grit sandpaper. The fingerboard was double-sided-taped into a frame I made that allowed the shaped block to travel along the fretboard and remain square to the fretboard. It looks nicer than the fingerboard on the guitar I'm playing, so I'm thinking that that job might be done. Is it? At what grit fineness do folks call it a day when sanding rosewood fingerboards? Is the final sanding grit parameter something that varies with the wood species? Will it look better by sanding with 800-grit or 100-grit?

Thanks very much.

[ken cierp]

The fingerboard gets finished up "after" the frets ae installed and dressed
http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/fretdressing.html

More work ahead for you

[peter havriluk]

Ken, your reply is an opening for another question I've been carrying around. I have the notion that the top of the fingerboard will turn out more evenly finished if the sanding and surface preparation are done before the frets are installed, so that the fingerboard can be blocksanded (or palmsanded, for that matter) along its whole length in long strokes. I thought that if I delayed fingerboard finishing till after the frets were installed, I'd be trying to sand between each fret, and seldom have I been able to sand between barriers, like frets, and have the surface evenly finished from each little segment to the next, each little segment would tend to be smoother in its center and less smooth closer to the fret.

I certainly see the merit in finishing the sides of the fretboard after the frets are installed and after the fretboard is attached to the neck. Did that on the guitar I built at Dave Nichols' shop.

I just read your tutorial on fret dressing, after I wrote the two paragraphs just above, and it makes sense. Perhaps it was just for publication, but the fretboard in the illustrations seems to have been pretty nicely prepared before the frets are installed. Your tutorial will sure result in a gorgeous finished product if all the steps are carefully done.

Thanks again for answering questions from us amateurs.

[ken cierp]

Guess I am not understanding your point -- yes the contour and the shape of the FB has to be completed before fretting. But after fretting its likely you'll have a few dents, scratches and glue that has be to removed after that process. Major clean up is done with a scraper (single edge razor blade) which removes massive amounts of material compared so sanding -- plus it leaves a very smooth surface as indicated in the tutor. So in my opinion and experience its a bit of a waste of time final finishing the FB before fretting.

[Tim Benware]

When I'm sanding the radius, I sand to 220. I also put cross hatch marks on the FB in chalk to be sure I am sanding the radius in evenly. After I fret I use a razor as a scraper to remove any glue residue etc and 0000 steel wool (even though I hate those steel pieces). The 0000 is as fine as I go in the FB. I use 400, 600 and two grades of 3M polishing paper to shine up the frets after level and crowning.