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Perhaps this will be old news but I am so pleased by some results, I thought I would post.
When I started into electric guitars I bought 6 Fender licensed necks with ebony fretboards-they were being sold at a nice price-But more importantly to me, I have always felt I could get left hand vibrato and controlled bends better on the guitars I have owned when they had ebony fretboards(Gaboon/Gabon). Iowa winters are cold and dry and one of the necks I had bought was showing cracking lengthwise between frets-as many as half.(My little home has a high efficiency furnace-they don't tell you that the high efficiency includes dehumidifying the air.)
Obviously I wanted to stop this and so, wicked in/on water thin CA. Even with gentle application, I would get a thick raised area where I had dribbled the CA. Not wanting to aggressively sand down the raised area, I quickly stroked my finger as a spreader to level out the application over the whole between -fret ebony-the whole fretboard. I then let the application thoroughly dry. Returning to the project, I saw that the cracks still showed as a depression. I got out a block of wood and a medium fine non-woven abrasive sheet and gently leveled. Then, I reapplied in the same manner. I did this routine 3-4 times, or until the crack was no longer a valley-all was level. Then, with the block I leveled for the final time and then proceeded to the genuine fine nylon abrasive, bringing the ebony to a velvet glow. The small pores of the ebony were no longer visible but that velvet feel kept the wood from feeling slick.As I worked through this, I also detailed the frets themselves, smoothing ends, leveling, re-crowning and the polishing which was a part of the wood buffing. There are two areas where in the right light, a line from the crack will appear, but there is no depression and it appears as a narrow greyish( no more than a half millimeter wide at worst) streak unless you know how this all started.
Essentially, I think I had made the ebony stabilized. The CA had not just dried on the surface-it had penetrated to some unknown depth. I followed the buffing of the CA treated surfaces with an application of my go-to protectant, Renaissance Wax.
In the mean time I was told about "fret doctor" which was really first developed as a bore oil for wooden clarinets and oboes, but was also sold as the fretted instrument helper. I ordered a 10ml bottle. I followed the instructions applying with an industrial sized "Q-tip"-a little goes a long way. I let it soak in and was a bit surprised but strangely pleased that the wood was absorbing the oil(no, it was not just carrier solvent evaporation). I buffed with cotton that I am using to learn french polish.I was curious about this absorbed appearance and feel. So, I applied again and left overnight; this time using it on an Orville LP ebony fretboard- not "stabilized" YET- as well.It was the Orville that convinced me that the oil was being absorbed-there were areas where the gloss of the surface of the fretboard remained and areas dulled because it had been soaked up into the wood.
Once again, I had these velvety smooth(except the Orville) surfaces- I like the "velvety" for control- I don't like slippery fretboards, I lose feel. This process leaves no surface that is flaky;everything truly seems to be in the wood. The first patient had this done over a week ago and has not changed- all in the same too-dry atmosphere( Anything with a case gets daily snake reload and zip-loc bag with moist square of terry towel)- the uncased, in progress have me on edge daily. I am now going to apply this process to rosewood on the neck of a Levin Goya steel string I recently bought for sentiment-the same model in 1963-64 was my first guitar- it needs a bridge replacement too, saddle had tipped forward and a temporary repair had been done.
As for the "Fret Doctor" snakeoil, I do not know what is in it but having applied it to ebony that I had not flooded with CA, I am happy with the feel and appearance on the Orville.It may prevent me from doing my process-blocking the CA;if so, well the Orville just stays "stock," but with enriched ebony.
I am now set up to turn Zoot-Man's beautiful ebony into slotted fretboards(LP's), ready for inlay. I plan to treat a board with the CA before cutting the pockets for the pearl and then the whole routine after. We'll see, I guess. Mike T(I have tried to capture the appearance of the end result in a photo, but it just doesn't show well-and feeling it is more important than seeing anyway).
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