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Okay lads and ladies, I need help with coloration. I'm working on 2 cocobolo dreads and after re-sawing the wood for the backs I ended up with very different colors than when I started. Question: How to I get the 'orange-looking' cocobolo back to the 'brown/purple-looking' state from which it started?

Thanks in advance!!

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Michael Anthony

"Life's short. Play guitar!"

Have you sanded yet? The colors should match up after sanding. Cocobolo will oxidize over time, so the freshly opened up surface will always be lighter. If you sand the old oxidized surface it should lighten up to match the fresh surface.

Edit: oops, realizes I didn't really answer your question. What James and Todd said below.

Time and exposure to air will remove the purples.

Just keep building the guitar; time will even-out the coloring for you...

+1 on the "it will do all the work". I have some I've used for fretboards that started out BRIGHT orange/red and are now a nice, even "brownish".

How long does it take to go brown and how dark does it get? Im thinking if the guitar is kept in a case it may never go brown. What do you think?

I've built 4 cocobolo guitars, 2 turned brown, 2 stayed orange. My original question was aimed at whether anyone knows of an oxidizing agent that could speed the process as I have the patience of a 3 minute egg!! I wonder if delaying the finishing process is the key (as to allow oxygen to get to the wood). Any thoughts on that???

Regarding keeping the guitar in it's case.....if it has a finish, I doubt that in/out of the case would make much difference.....just my thinking on that one! Always open to any 'correction' of my thinking, so don't be shy if anyone thinks I'm loony-tunes!!

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Michael Anthony

"Life's short. Play guitar!"

I am no wood expert but I have built one instruments with coco. Like you said, some stay orange, some turn brown. The coco I used was brown when I got it, and stayed brown when I cut it. I think there is a alot of variability in the oxidation/coloration with this species. I think that since your wood was brown, then turned orange when you cut it, it will turn brown again. You could go ahead and build the guitar, get to final sanded, then let it sit out for awhile before finish. And/or use a thin finish, may help.

If you resawed them, shouldn't they be a book match, both with freshly cut surfaces?

Regardless, by the time you join/scrape/sand they will look the same.

In the case that you want them to look the same before you build the guitar, you could just resurface the dark piece. (assuming you have enough thickness)

And forthly to answer your question, I don't know of anything to put on it to speed up the process. But, from what I've heard, some woods darken due to oxidation and some woods darken do to UV exposure.

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Pat

I have found that mahogany darkens faster when exposed to sunlight.

Bob