I’ve been trying to figure out how to get a fingerboard blank. I have been reading up on woods that are appropriate for the purpose and only very hard woods will work. Ebony is most common with rosewood and maple being suitable substitutes. I didn’t want to spend any money on the fingerboard primarily because Mesquite is hard enough (harder than rosewood and maple) and is a very good alternative for me here in Arizona. I see it in heaps around town with some regularity.
Yesterday I went to a place to get some firewood and bought a wheelbarrow full of mesquite. I picked this log as it isn’t twisted as most mesquite twists as it grows, making good, straight-grained mesquite somewhat difficult to find.
I planed/chiseled to get a flat surface to run this through the band saw. Then sliced off a few fingerboard blanks that are the right size for a uke.
The top one has a knot in it that looks like it is going to be too intrusive. The middle one looks the best but is about 1/16th too narrow to use. So will go with the bottom one which has some traces of the knot from the top board, but I believe I can plane/sand down past the remnants of that and still have enough material to use for the fingerboard.
I’ve planed the edges and sides a bit on these just to get a good look at them. All have minor flaws, but the bottom one will be good enough for the fingerboard and the others have enough clean material to use as bridge blanks for the uke and probably good for guitar bridges as well.
That’s all I’ve got for today.