Bulloak

[blackalex1952]

Has anyone used Bulloak for fingerboards or back and sides...would it be tricky if not impossible to bend? Given the brittle grain
I'm wondering how serviceable it would be for a fingerboard. My "experiment" has shown me that fretting holds into this timber, but how about subsequent re frets and grain tear out during fret extraction...pretty exciting figure in Bulloak!....cheers! Ross

[blackalex1952]

Just to clarify I'm talking about the Buloke (my spelling mistake) Allocasuarina luehmannii...cheers! Ross

[Allen]

I've used it for bindings at 0.070" and 5 mm tall. Don't recal it being a problem but the edges are extrememly sharp until rounded over. You could easily cut yourself on them.

[blackalex1952]

This I have experienced when milling....not to mention the splinters. I assume that the Aborigines made very effective weapons out of the stuff!

[rocket]

Yep ,,, got a build on atm,, Bull oak FB , very hard and thats what i want , nice figure and thats what i want,,,,,,,, as far as re fretting,, call me in 15, 20, 30 years???

[Julian]

I too have used buloke as a fretboard, it's stunning, and stunningly hard!
I slipped while filing the fret edges and nicked the top of a fret and so replaced it... The buloke is brittle! Even with chamfering the top edges of the fret slots prior to installing frets I still had decent chip out. A couple of the chips started 2.5 mm from the edge of the fret slot, not good, but wicking a bit of thin super glue beneath the chips and re-dressing the fretboard worked a treat.

You could probably make fret wire out of the buloke it's that hard!

[kiwigeo]

You could probably make fret wire out of the buloke it's that hard!

Don't let Stewmac find out!!

[Julian]

It's remarkable stuff, I used it as the centre strip on a neck that has it as the fretboard

[Julian]

I'm trying to upload photos but am a bit hopeless at tech ...