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I'm making rosettes from EI rosewood and spalted maple. I'm concerned that when I sand the EI rosewood will stain the spruce top. Can anyone provide any advise?

Hi Paul and welcome to the OLF!

When you sand with 120 grit the rosewood dust may darken the spruce but when you move progressively to 220 or 240 grit the sanding action is fine enough to remove any darker wood dust from the spruce.

While we are at it you know that CA if that is what you are planning on using to glue in your rosette may stain your spruce top. The fix for this is to either use shellac to coat the spruce top and end grain around where the rosette will be glued or use something other than CA to glue in the rosette.

Welcome aboard!

Thanks very much! I was also wondering about glue and bleeding. I plan on using TiteBond. I'll post pictures when I'm done.

Shellac sounds like a great idea. I wasn't planning on
purfling because th rosewood is intended to surround the maple like a thick purfling. Not sure hhow adding purfling will help with the tolerances?

Also, a good cabinet scraper will not stain your top, if you use that instead of sandpaper to clean up the rosette.

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Waddy

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Thanks for all the great suggestions!!! I feel I'm well on my way to creating a gorgeous rosette!