Ebony truss rod covers.

markj

Just ordered some 3 mm ebony to make some truss rod covers for my prs guitars. Any advice would be welcome from other forum members.

octatonic

What would you like to know?

It is hard to give you advice without an idea of what you need help with, your current level of skill and what your available tools are.

markj

I have quite a good knowledge of woodworking skills, I was wondering wether to leave the ebony natural,wood or use a clear Finish of some sort. I have never worked with ebony before. Is it an easy wood to work with?

ArchtopDave

Potentially you could just sand it through sandpaper grades to a fine one. Having said that, certainly nitro finished ebony does look good. It really depends on how you want this little area of the guitar to look. Ebony can be slightly odd to work with, in that it can sometimes "chip" like a bit of coal.

WezV

it can be a bit brittle and chip easily so i wouldn't go too fancy on the shape until you are used to working with it, on the other hand its really easy to repair any damage with a bit of ebony dust and superglue

i would leave it unfinished as to me  lacquered ebony ends up looking a lot like black plastic... but obviously that depends on the piece, if it has some lighter streaks this won't be a problem at all.   generally you can just polish it to a nice shine, if it looks a bit dull add a bit of oil for a nicer luster 

ThePrettyDamned

I've added some wudtone black magic woman and gloss top coat to the headstock on mine, just to prevent further chipping (I accidentally put a small chip near one of the tuner holes when test fitting, entirely my fault but not noticeable when the tuner is in place).  

It looks great, but still looks like a piece of wood.  If you look at a lot of Epiphone and Gibson headstocks, they really do just look like a sheet of plastic!

Andyjr1515

I agree with @WezV. Just sanded down to very fine, drop of lemon oil to get rid of the dust and buff to an uncovered sheen. It will look fantastic.

octatonic

As to shaping it- are you going for a symmetrical shape or an asymmetrical shape?

If symmetrical then I suggest making a half template out of acetate and marking a centre line on ebony and working either side of that line.

Use some masking tape stuck over the ebony and mark the masking tape with a pencil- or use a white pencil on the ebony.

Do you have a bandsaw?

Rough shape it with the bandsaw or a coping saw and then I would use either a japanese carving knife or a fine Herdim rasp to work down to the pencil line.

Or you could use a very sharp chisel.

Then sandpaper or micro mesh- I wouldn't lacquer it myself, ebony looks great with a bit of lemon oil and a good polish.

markj

I am going to use the prs truss rod cover as a template. My stripped 58's plastic truss rod cover lets a fine guitar down.