Can one strip a maple neck without worrying about the frets?

[poolshark]

Let's say I wanted to strip a poly-finished maple/maple neck and re-finish it in Tru Oil. Would I need to worry very much about disturbing the fretwork in a project like this? I know frets can sprout/loosen for a variety of reasons - not that I'm incapable of fixing these problems - but I'm curious as to how much an issue it might be.

[stormin1155]

It may be difficult to get all the poly out from under the edges of the frets. I highly doubt that it would cause the frets to loosen.

 

As for the sprout, that happens mostly when it is exposed to low humidity... the wood shrinks. When the neck is sealed in poly it is much less susceptible to those changes. You may have more trouble with fret sprout, but with an oiled neck it will be real easy to file off the edges because you don't have to worry about scarring the finish. If you scuff the wood a bit in the process a little light sanding with very fine sand paper and another coat of oil will take care of it.

[MahaloVision]

I could see using a small razor blade sized scraper in between most of the frets, and perhaps a chisel held vertically in between the upper frets. But it would be incredibly tedious.

 

If it were me, I'd remove the frets, sand to bare wood using a radiused block to match the fingerboard (assuming it's not compound), shape the neck if desired, then sand everything down to 2000 grit. Re-Fret with epoxy, clean up, then oil it. But that's just me - there's different ways to do what you want.