Worm holes in rosewood backs

[Manel Liria]

Hi! I just discovered some annoying worm holes in two sets of Indian rosewood, and I wonder if that happened in my shop or before. I live in south Maine, and never had this problem before. I thought I didn't have to worry about, but now I am

Do you guys take special precautions regarding insects attacking our precious wood?

Thanks

[Bob Gramann]

I’ve seen it a few times in rosewood I’ve purchased. Rosewood is very forgiving for this type of thing. If you sand around it to pack some dust in the hole and put a drop of CA glue on it, you’ll have a hard time finding it again after you sand the repair.

If you think that it actually happened in your shop, you might want to put the wood in the oven at 200F for a few minutes to kill the bugs. Since the holes are pretty round, like the blade sliced through a tunnel when the wood was resawn, a bug in your shop isn’t very likely unless you did the resawing.

[Manel Liria]

I’ve seen it a few times in rosewood I’ve purchased. Rosewood is very forgiving for this type of thing. If you sand around it to pack some dust in the hole and put a drop of CA glue on it, you’ll have a hard time finding it again after you sand the repair.

If you think that it actually happened in your shop, you might want to put the wood in the oven at 200F for a few minutes to kill the bugs. Since the holes are pretty round, like the blade sliced through a tunnel when the wood was resawn, a bug in your shop isn’t very likely unless you did the resawing.

I think the holes might have been there when I've got the wood, cause the holes are symmetric, as a result of split it when re sawing, as you suggested.

Sorry, I panicked thinking all my wood was at risk. Thanks for the tip how to fix it. I have done it in ebony. It should be straight forward.

Thanks.

[Bryan Bear]

We understand the panic. We had a member here one April who had an alarming infestation of wood-boring worms! I did a quick serch in the library but didn't find the discussion. I'm sure it is in there somewhere.

[Bill Raymond]

Bryan, perhaps you're thinking of Chuck Tweedy's April Fools Day post.

[Manel Liria]

Bryan, perhaps you're thinking of Chuck Tweedy's April Fools Day post.

That is a good one

Seriously, I have a small stack of wood in south Spain, and last time I went for vacations I found a cocobolo set full of worms holes. So I'd say its a real concern at least in warm weather areas.

[Brent Tobin]

Call them 'custom sound ports' and charge extra for them.

[Steve Sawyer]

Woodcraft is offering 3" X 24" X 3/4" hunks of gabon ebony for $49 this month, and I grabbed one thinking I could probably re-saw 3 fretboards out of it. Pretty nice wood with just a hint of some light streaks that could easily be dyed or just left as-is, depending...

Anyway, I took a close look at this plank a couple of days ago and was a little dismayed to see some tiny worm-holes here and there. I'm thinking they shouldn't be hard to fill with some ebony dust.

Some friends and I lost an entire stack of white oak to what we believe were powder-post beetles. We got it green, slathered the ends with anchor-seal, stickered and stacked them and left them to dry for about five years (these were thick planks - 8 and 12/4) but neglected to wash them down with a borax solution. If only the beetles had been considerate enough to have bored somewhat uniformly...

[Bryan Bear]

Bryan, perhaps you're thinking of Chuck Tweedy's April Fools Day post.

That is absolutely the thread I'm talking about! It is probably my all time favorite thread here. I was sad when I couldn't find it; I wanted to link to it here. <G>

[Chuck Tweedy]

Wow - I guess i really made an impression! That was like a decade ago... Maybe more!

[Alan Carruth]

I knew a fellow who lost a large pile of maple double bass backs to worm damage. Somehow they got stacked up on a dirt floor in a pretty tight pile, and by the time he looked at them there was not a piece big enough for a violin left without a worm hole.