david weaver
I agree with that straight up.

It is the side grain or some sort of rift presentation that ends up showing up on guitar fingerboards, though. as long as it is cheaper than indian rosewood and especially ebony, it'll probably get more and more popular, and the face of it should make a nice fingerboard (and one that's interesting looking, too).

But the side grain is relatively easy to plane, actually everything is pretty easy to plane on cocobolo (including the knots) except for dead on quartersawn grain when it's dry. Fortunately, for the guitar folks, the dead quartersawn grain wouldn't make for a very durable fingerboard, and hopefully it is avoided to some extent.

Of course any commercial or even boutique shop is going to run it through a drum or belt sander to thickness it (or buy it pre-made), so the sanding won't be as much of an issue.

It is the only wood that I know of so far that sets me off when I sand it. when I plane it, I can smell it, but i'm not sensitive enough to be bothered by the smell without more dust, and a good sharp plane makes no dust with it. Tearout or a dull iron makes for a lot of dust if it's dry, though.