Cello Neck Repain Part 5: Fingerboard Clean Up and Repair

Cleaning the Hide Glue Residue.

I soften the glue with a cloth soaked in hot water. Then I scrape it off with the Stainless Steel ruler.


This is the color and grain of the wood. The traditional black color of ebony is due to a dye that is used to give uniformity to it. Ebony usually has streaks ranging from light to dark brown to almost black.



Here you can see the cleaned fingerboard.


Problems in the Road

The alcohol used for the fingerboard removal took off some of the ebony dye revealing the natural color of the wood. After removing the glue I decided to clean off all the dye and redo the entire fingerboard correcting the problem.
While I was removing the dye with alcohol, I noticed a crack on the surface at the bottom end of the fingerboard. I rubbed it quite hard with the cloth trying to get the tint of the crack, to my surprise two small pieces of wood fell off the fingerboard.


In this picture you can see the length of the crack that runs from the arrow A to arrow B. When I looked closely, I noticed that the pieces had been previously glued with Hide Glue. The residue of the glue can be seen in arrow C.


The affected area must be completely removed and cleaned prior to be re glued. With the heating pad I warmed the area and with a hook type tool pull off the parts.


Solution to the problem, aggressive version

I faced the dilemma of the permanent and appropriate correction for the fingerboard. Apparently the luthier that made the previous fix to this Cello glued the parts with Hide Glue and covered the crack with wood filler. Then he applied layers of black dye to cover the fix.
If I do the same as the previous luthier, most likely in a few years the crack will reappear and the pieces can detach. So I decided to do something that is not necessarily in the books. Remove all the old tint leaving the fingerboard in the raw and cover the whole surface of the fingerboard with two generous coats of epoxy resin. The most obvious question: Why do this? The answer to the question is explained with the procedure for removal of old dye.

Old Dye Removal


With lacquer thinner and an abrasive black sponge I removed the dye from the fingerboard.


After scraping the surface I noticed that the fingerboard had several layers of varnish and dye in the corners. The varnish is the same that was used for the Cello neck. Apparently both parts (fingerboard and neck) were varnished together to give the instrument more integrity.
In the arrow A you can see the black dye still to be removed. In the arrow B a surface layer of varnish, In C another deeper layer and finally the raw wood on arrow D.



In the two previous photos the fingerboard can be seen clean, free from dye and varnish.
The natural chocolaty color of the fingerboard can be seen on the cloths I used for the work. These cloths answer the obvious. Part of the wood was worn with the abrasive sponge.
Coating the fingerboard with resin can return it to the original dimensions and at the same time it will give me some extra material for sanding the surface to its original radius.

Gluing the Loose Fragments


I rubbed the area to be glued with alcohol to remove any trace of Hide Glue.



Here you can see the parts to be glued clean and free of Hide Glue.



The whole area is covered with tape to avoid the resin to fall in the raw wood.


Here are the parts ready to be glue.

The parts must be clamped for 12 hours.

In the two photos above you can see the pieces glued in place. Despite the crack that is visible now it will disappear when everything gets coated in epoxy resin .

Now we just need to rectify the fingerboard and cover it in resin, then re glue it to the Cello's neck.

End of Part 5