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Hello all,

On my current build I'm using spanish cedar for my neck and I have a ebony head plate. Today I was sanding different parts of the head and ebony dust kept contaminating the spanish cedar causing it to look dirty. Is there some way of getting the ebony dust out?

Thanks

Graham

Get your scraper out, try that. Should clean up fine.

HI Graham


I was having similiar problems on a build recently, and
as suggested by the guys here, I found Naptha the most effective for removing the Ebony Dust.

Hope this Helps


Russell

Thanks guys,

I'll give both of those ideas a try.

Graham

Another idea might be to just put a quick wash coat of shellac around the area you're working. It only takes about 30 secs but will make clean up much quicker and easier.

Good luck!

John

Hi John,

I'm not quite sure what you mean. I understand the wash coat of shellac since I have done some French polishing, but am I supposed to apply it before I start sanding or after and then remove it?

Thanks

Graham

HI Graham

I think what John was saying is if you apply a coat before hand, then you could avoid the dust getting into the grain, he is not suggesting it as a removal technique.

Graham,

I am having to deal with the same issue right now. For me, it's a cedro neck with an ebony reinforcement strip running down the center.

I recall a tip Bill Cumpiano passed along in another forum regarding sanding dust contamination. He said that the finest sandpaper one should use when dealing with different contiguous woods is 220 grit. Reason being that most wood fibers will allow dust finer than that produced by 220 grit to become lodged in them. So as long as you don't go beyond 220 grit you're OK.

Well, when it comes to cedro and ebony, I'd have to say that this is just sort of true. So what I do is I sand with relatively course paper, like 80 and 150 grit -- or even a file or rasp. Then when I'm getting close to final shape, I will wipe the area down with shellac to seal the deeper pores. That way, when I use a finer grit paper, the ebony cannot become imbedded in the pores, and will usually come out just if wiped with a clean cloth.

Best,

Michael

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