Pear wood fret board blank

[Chris Sisson]

I have a 1920's vintage banjo neck in my shop that needs anew fret board.  From research and word of the owner the original board was made of pear wood then dyed black.  Does anyone know of a source for a clear quarter sawn blank?  Thanks

[Frank Ford]

Replace the board with ebony and make the banjo better, and everyone happier. . .

[Chris Sisson]

Thanks for your thoughts, I agree, pear is soft and seems to be more susceptible to dry rot but would like to have a viable source to offer the customer to cover my bases if nothing else.  

[Greg Mirken]

Seriously, there is zero reason to even offer pearwood, in my opinion. Remember, this instrument was built in an era when labor was cheap and materials expensive. I've seen dyed pearwood or poplar veneers, but not thicker stock. To source pearwood, dye it, and make a fingerboard would cost much more than just getting a pre-slotted ready-to-go ebony board.

[Chris Sisson]

Thanks, agreed. It was important to the customer so I had to give it a good try.

[Howard Klepper]

Pearwood is not scarce.  Many hardwood lumber yards have it.  Have you looked?

[Chris Sisson]

I talked to a yard in BC which LMI referred me to. It was available only in a turning block which ended up being over $100 all in all. My first house had pear wood work so I know what you mean. The old fingerboard essentially disintegrated when I tried to remove it after heating with an LMI heater. I Happily I was able to talk the customer into allowing me to use ebony, I think he liked the idea of using pear like the old board. It was I am told, used on cheaper offerings.
I think the problem with supply is that luthier oriented sources don't mess with it. But, Larry Brown, the esteemed Lute maker told me that European pear is the wood of choice for lute pegs because of its dimensional stability. He published that in one of his "Big Red Book" articles.

[Ron Frazier]

no I have never looked,  I have been building for fun since I was 15 years old and had my own cabinet shop for 50 years and never knew there was such wood except on finger boards . I would not bother looking for some if I was you

Ron