Help with this 100 year old piece of Ebony!

[RobStark]

Hi,

I have this very old piece of Ebony that belonged to my great grandfather and I would very much like to try and get 1 or 2 fretboards out of it. I am unsure how to approach this however, with my limited wood working experience, especially working with real hard woods such as ebony. My question is, because it is so old could that potentially harden it even beyond it's already hard qualities? I see a few cracks in the ends but can't tell how deep they go. I won't touch this until I'm confident I can resaw some planks out of it without destroying it but I am wondering if i am just going to kill my blades/tools trying to cut this hard beast.

Here are some pics, appreciate any advice. Thanks

 

[ARandall]

Too cracked, and not big enough for mine.

Try making a carving from it.

 

[RobStark]

Too cracked, and not big enough for mine.

Try making a carving from it.

Dang, I suspected so.. thanks for the reply

 

[pshupe]

It's really hard to tell scale. Can you take some pictures with a ruler or something beside the piece. Basically just length and then put a ruler in the end picture.

Regards Peter.

 

[emoney]

I can't see the pictures at all, but that's not your fault. If for some reason, there is a
suggestion to resaw it, and were it me (which it's not), I'd find a local cabinet shop and
just pay them a few bucks to do it. A)They're better equipped and B)The cost is usually
no more than what the new blade will cost you once that Ebony dulls your current one,
assuming you have a bandsaw, that is.

 

[kfowler8]

Yeah hard to tell scale but I don't think it's going to be wide enough.

 

[mountainwhimsy]

Emoney. I can't believe you didn't say, "It's junk, send it to me!"

So I'll say it!

It could definitely be used for some acoustic bridge blanks or archtop bridges. Might be risky to try and get fingerboards out of it.

 

[Ole'Lefty]

How would you get even a single fretboard without including the cracks? Photos only show the visible surface of them. Since ebony is my favorite fretboard material, I have done battle with it for years. I, too, have had my hands on some very old ebony. I has cracks in it waiting to happen. I had one piece about 50 years old and I cut some pen turning blanks from it (mind you, this plank was 1" thick and almost a foot wide and two and one half feet long. I then let the small blanks, 1" by 1" by 7" rest for a year in ordinary household atmosphere. Of the six I cut, three cracked to unusable-two of the pens cracked after completion-goodbye to $90 in premium pen parts except for the nibs and handpieces. So, I agree that your wood is carving stock for something that would not suffer if cracks developed.

Every ebony fretboard I have has been treated with water thin CA (even on completed guitars). After the wood refuses to draw in more CA, I then sand( Micro-Mesh pads) it back and buff it. I use the whip tips to avoid mistakes. It ends up looking like velvet, it glows and I no longer fear splits. It is such a beautiful wood, but it is cruel.

 

[RobStark]

Thank you all for the responses so far, here are some pics with a ruler showing it's scale though.. just incase this changes anyones opinions of the matter..

 

[robertoa1a]

If it means that much, family wise, I will re-saw it and repair the cracks.

The cracks can be glued if it is important to you. 100 percent.

Not a problem!

 

[robertoa1a]

I would hold it a s a keep sake. I have a lot of rare wood. When you see cracks it may be stump wood.