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Maple, Holly, Sycamore, Aspen. Easiest to work with ie., bending, etc. Finest grain structure.
I am curious if any of you have experience with these and thoughts and impressions. For example I would think that the wood with the finest grain would have the least tendency to stain with the dust of a dark wood. Also maple is one of those woods that burns fairly easily. (Not in the fire place but with cutting tools)
Which wood will age to look the most like ivory. Thoughts.
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

Don't want much do you

won't stain, won't burn cutting, finest grain structure, looks like Ivory????????????

That would be Ivory

Well honestly no wood binding is going to look like Ivory color or texture wise selected pieces of maple comes closest to fitting your total bill of wants. but seriously none will look anything like Ivory. If you want an ivory look, why not Ivroid?

Holly. It is great stuff. You can almost install it without pre bending.

Just find good clean stock. It tends to go a little grey, but if you find super white stock I have never had it turn on me after it has been cut and processed into bindings.

It will sometimes pick up dark dust, but I find you can clean it pretty easy with steel wool and compressed air.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Yes. Holly is great. Very flexible in binding form too as Brock said. Very good straight-grained stock is a little pricey but you can cut a lot of bindings out of it and come out much better than buying pre-cut bindings.

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

Holly stays pretty white. Most ivory-like wood IMO is boxwood, but you will likely never find it long enough for binding.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I wasn't stating requirments that the wood HAVE to be this or that I just wanted to know properties and was giving examples of what I meant by properties.




I said would look most like ivory, not look like ivory. I was just using ivory as a descriptive term. Translated most homogeneous, least visible grain structure and general color the wood will end up after oxidation.
I think maple will turn too way to redish when it oxidizes for what I am looking for.

Don't want to use/work with plastic. I don't much like Ivroid.

Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

A friend of mine, Chris Jenkins, used some Holly binding strips I supplied to him. Several people saw the completed instrument and were certain the bindings were plastic and not Holly. They looked that white.
If you live in the eastern part of the US, you could hunt for some Hornbeam. It is hard, closed pore and exhibits very little grain patterns. Quite pale as well. Might be a tad pinkish for your purposes, though.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

So on the Holly are you guys talking American Holly or the Euro stuff .
Where do you get it ? I think Gilmor in Portland has it but they have a $150 minimum. Do you have anyone you trust to pick the wood you want ?
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

I forgot about Hornbeam. Is the N. American stuff whiter than the Euro.
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

I know my local Woodcraft has several very white boards... Dunno if that helps.

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-They made me do this-
My name is Matthew Luce

english sycamore all the way its the nicest binding material there is by far,
even nicer if its figured

joel.

European maple (Acer pseudoplatanus) is more pale than the US varieties I have used (big leaf, sugar and red). I have guitars that I built with it 7 and 8 years ago, still quite pale. This maple was cut locally.

<edit> I seems that Joel and I are talking about the same wood, English sycamore is Acer pseudoplatanus (I googled).

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I was going to say that Holly looks a lot like ivory, but that's been shot down.

I had a large board of Holly that finally got used up as binding, you're right, it bends right in, no heat necessary.

Now I have to use up the big board of curly Maple.

Have you noticed Holly is pretty pricy $.

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https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008907949110

The stuff I have is American Holly I'm pretty sure. Its dead white too. I can imagine it looking like plastic due to its homogeneous coloring. Since I'm gradually learning to dislike plastics anyway this is a great alternative for me.

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

Won't be using any Holly around here...the local woodcraft is the only place to get it and it's almost $30 dollars per board foot.

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

I am indeed we call it sycamore here in the uk (and have done for hundreds of years) but it is commonly refered to as european maple,
The same wood acer psudoplatanus.
its a lovely creamy wood i love it for bindings.

Joel.

The Australian alternative is Cheese Wood. Looks very much like ivory. It's very hard and does have a tendency to burn if tools aren't really sharp. Bends easily and finishes very well. I got mine from Tim Spittle at Australian Tone Woods.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

Sniggly,
$30 bd. ft. does sound like a lot of money, but if it is good stock it is worth picking up. Remember, a bd. ft. will slice up a good 25-30 sticks making the material cost reasonable per. stick of binding. Your biggest investment in binding is your time. If you find really good material, spend the time to slice it up and surface it, then have more than you want to use. I am absolutely sure you would find other members that would be happy to pay you a bit for your time and buy some of your surplus at the next swap meet. The trick is finding the good stock as it often is discolored, has knots or other flaws over the length of boards long enough for binding stock.

Rich

I used aspen on my first build (not as binding). It stays very white and is not too subseptable to dust staining it. The pores are relatively closed. It bends easy, but due to its fiberious makeup, tends to fracture if its not well supported during the bend (especially on cutaways). I am not sure if its hard enough for binding though. I know a lot of people think of binding as the ornate strip that goes around the edge of a guitar to hide the end grain of the back/top. But to the working musician, binding is one of the only things that protect the guitar from getting beat to . I would look for woods that are hard...not hardwood.

Personally, I prefer Celulliod (ivoriod) or ABS over wood bindings if the guitar is gonna actually be used somewhat regularly. Of course your preference may be different.

J

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Joe