[measles23]

Probably been covered before but can’t find it..

Really struggling with friction on my old BM2k and S7/wood grips campus rungs, even in lovely cool conditions - all heavily used, polished and with ingrained chalk

Any advice on cleaning them? Can you put them through a dishwasher or could that warp them, or just hand wash them?

Any experience/advice welcome..

Cheers
Matt

[Paul B]

If you brush your fingerboard with a soft, natural bristle brush regularly it won’t ever need any more cleaning. If you allow chalk to build up and cake the pores of the wood it will start to feel slippery and minging. In this case you can clean the wood back to it’s natural state with your aforementioned brush, or if things have got really bad you can use a bit of sandpaper (120 grit works best to give the right texture) to gently sand the crusty chalk build up off.

When fingerboarding you tend to have a lot of rest time. Brushing the fingerboard is a good use of your rest time! It will keep the fingerboard in good condition and it will make your session more consistent as the friction will remain the same throughout the session. And over time you won’t find it getting caked with a thick, greasy, chalky residue.

[205Chris]

I doubt a dishwasher will do them any favours.

I'd start with a climbing brush, and if that fails, sandpaper.

There's more info on the Beastmaker site, including this:

If you brush your fingerboard with a soft, natural bristle brush regularly it won’t ever need any more cleaning. If you allow chalk to build up and cake the pores of the wood it will start to feel slippery and minging. In this case you can clean the wood back to it’s natural state with your aforementioned brush, or if things have got really bad you can use a bit of sandpaper (120 grit works best to give the right texture) to gently sand the crusty chalk build up off.

[measles23]

Cheers both - will try the sandpaper idea..

[Nibile]

I strongly advise you not to.
Use a natural, hard brush and some patience.
An old Lapis brush with short bristles will do good.

[measles23]

Yup got a collection of lapis brushes with very short bristles now...

Have you had a bad experience with sandpaper nibs?

I just tried it gingerly now on one of my Metolius rungs and it’s worked very well.. Abusing the BM with it feels a little sacrilegious tho.. No one will take my power club entries seriously on a high friction BM!

[Nibile]

Hey!
No bad experiences on the BM but having tinkered for years with wooden holds I've seen that it's oh so easy to modify them even with a light pressure, especially with the fingertips.
Rungs are another thing because of their purpose, but I'd rather avoid sandpaper anyway.

Good thinking about the BM!

[highrepute]

I use sand paper on mine quite regularly. Not noticed any negative effects. Doesn't need much, just a few wipes. I always sand perpendicular to the direction of hang.

Moved mine from a bedroom to kitchen and now seems to get greasy quite easily, all the cooking juices 

[reeve]

Moved mine from a bedroom to kitchen and now seems to get greasy quite easily, all the cooking juices 

When I moved in with Marie her beastmaker was just like this. It had been above the kitchen doorway for a few years (rented house with no extractor fan above the hob). We take it down unless using it now but it's still taken a few months for it to recover to normal. Sandpaper nor brushing seemed to help, but maybe the grease was too deep in the grain.

[highrepute]

Moved mine from a bedroom to kitchen and now seems to get greasy quite easily, all the cooking juices 

When I moved in with Marie her beastmaker was just like this. It had been above the kitchen doorway for a few years (rented house with no extractor fan above the hob). We take it down unless using it now but it's still taken a few months for it to recover to normal. Sandpaper nor brushing seemed to help, but maybe the grease was too deep in the grain.

Interesting.

[tomtom]

Opportunity here for a beast maker cover...

[cheque]

Very fine grade (0000) wire wool is what guitar techs use on very dirty guitar fretboards. It doesn’t damage the wood at all and although it’s softer stuff that wooden hangboards are made out of I reckon it’ll work a treat.