Making the rosewood fretboard brown

[Roger Häggström]

Madagaskar rosewood is a bit pink, indian rosewood a bit purple. Everybody wants Brazilian brown rosewood!

With time any rosewood will turn nice brown due to oxidation. With potassium permanganate you can make any rosewood fretboard brown in seconds. Compare the color of the Madagascar fretboard on this guitar before and after a treatment (some arbitrary pictures, but the change in color is easy to see).

[onewent]

Thanks for that, Roger, and nice jig to keep a neck secure for the re-glue!  Tom

[Roger Häggström]

Works like a charm, both the permanganate and the foldable neck gluing jig :-)

[Richard Bales]

Also try using Potassium Dichromate for a warmer colour.  The Permanganate tends to bring out the colder colours in the oxidation process, Dichromate the warmer tones.

I routinely use ammonia as well for giving a nice aged colour to numerous woods, and also as a mordant before using dyes.

[Roger Häggström]

Wikipedia tells me that Potassium Dichromate "is acutely and chronically harmful to health". I think I'll pass.I will try ammonia and see what it does though!

[Richard Bales]

Yes it would be if you drink it.  Or absorb it through your skin.  I avoid both.  There are essentially no fumes when it's dissolved in water, so it's really a question of how you expose yourself to it.  Be careful when sanding wood that has been treated with it though.

[Roger Häggström]

This was a red flag for me; "In 2005–06, potassium dichromate was the 11th-most-prevalent allergen in patch tests"

[Mark Fogleman]

Alcohol meets that same criteria ;')

[Russell Vance]

Even if dissolved in Coke and ice?   Gees, talk about a bad news week.  I'll have to do some further human guinea pig experiments and tell you how it went (if I survive).    

Rusty.