burnished fret position markers?

ukulele-melee

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I'm finishing off a new uke and was just going to leave off any top position markers and then I got to wondering... have any of you ever tried just burnishing on position markers?

I did some experiments tonight with a small dowel in the drill press and a spare cutoff of rosewood.
I also tried a pencil eraser and a drill bit chucked upside down.

I liked the look using the dowel the best but it was tough to be consistent and you really only seem to get one shot at it. It's almost impossible to get realligned if you move the fretboard and if you go too long... POOF, it burns.

But when it works! It just shines and has a nice bullseye swirl. I need to practice some more before I do it for real. Has anyone else ever seen this done on uke or guitar?

Brian
 
I'm still practicing, I can't get consistent results. This is a scrap fretboard. Most of these burned rather than burnished. The one that shines is what I was going for.
I think it's just a practice and technique thing so I'll keep trying.

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I wonder what it's going to look like once you shine up the fretboard. If it's just a shiny, slightly darker spot, then I suspect it would (almost) disappear when you put some oil on the board. Also, you're making an indentation - which is something players, as a rule, don't want.
 
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