Rosewood and ebony fingerboards are not finished with lacquer like the rest of the wood parts in your guitar. They depend on the natural oils in the wood and your fingers to keep the wood in good shape. This is good up to a point, but over time they dry out and get dirty and need to be cleaned, sealed, and reconditioned. Maple fretboards are lacquered and are cleaned differently.

The classical methods that most good guitar techs use for this are cleaning the fretboard with naptha and a razor blade followed by 0000 steel wool, then cleaning it again with lemon oil, or mineral oil, and sealing with the traditional finish of boiled linseed oil. The linseed oil takes at least six or seven hours to dry, often overnight. This method works well and makes an attractive, very silky smooth feeling surface that is sealed and protected. It can’t harm your guitar’s fretboard, binding, or finish. But it takes a lot of time.

This product combines some of the steps in a fast curing oil, made with the same time proven ingredients. Very small amounts of a couple of other ingredients have been added to aid in cleaning and speed curing time. These are also safe for your guitar and are some of the active ingredients in other well-known products that have been used by many guitar techs and luthiers for cleaning and protecting fretboards. Your guitar will be protected with this formula just the same as with the classical treatments except that it works faster and cures much faster. Five to ten minutes after using this treatment according to directions, the guitar will be ready to play. That’s about the time it takes to get the strings back on it and tune it. It won’t be tacky or sticky. Just silky smooth. I won’t tell all the ingredients, but the main ones (well over 90% of the total) are pure boiled linseed oil, Johnson’s Baby Oil, and Weiman Natural Lemon Oil Furniture Polish (it’s the only one with a UV inhibitor). No silicones or other damaging ingredients are included. I double boil and filter part of the linseed oil again to speed up the cure time. The formula doesn’t include naptha, so you need to do that step separately and provide your own supply.

This product is mailable, and not DOT regulated. The USPS shipping option will probably be cheaper for a small order.   Here are the Instructions for Use, and the MSDS.