Official Luthiers Forum!

 I am new to building so I don't know what the guitar building community thinks of knots. Something to be avoided or character marks? I just got to nice walnut boards 15"x 1 1/4"x 6' with curl in it. One of the boards has a couple pin knots in the curly area. Can I use them if they are tight?

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Mistakes are mandatory-learning from them is optional. http://www.opensourceluthiersupply.com

If they are solid, then yes. If you're just learning, you don't need the really expensive / perfect woods. If you're going to put your money some place important, choose a good top. Even then, you don't need a perfect looking top, just a good stiff piece with good tap tone.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

It depends on the knots. If they are small, secure, and you like the way that they look, I see no reason to reject the wood.

Al

 I am excited I am going up to spend a week with Dave Nichols at Custom Pearl inlay at the end of September. This forum is great on getting question answer fast. As Don said they wood I have will be fine for the stage I am at. Also give me some experience resawing. I will let people know how I do with the tungston impregnated blades I got from R&D in Canada. I am building a special feather wheel system to hold the wood against the fence better. If it works out I will post a picture. Got the parts from www.Stockroomsupply.com they have alot of interesting things on their site.

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Mistakes are mandatory-learning from them is optional. http://www.opensourceluthiersupply.com

I have used nothing but the industrial blades from R&D on my 3/4 hp 14 inch Delta - they are on my way to skiing , about 25 minutes away. I first bought their blades at a wood show up here, and they are nothing but fantastic. I have resawn a LOT of wood with these things, and at 20 bucks each, its a bargain. If they arent working for you, its definitely the saw setup - I can attest to that.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

[QUOTE=TonyKarol] I have used nothing but the industrial blades from R&D on my 3/4 hp 14 inch Delta - they are on my way to skiing , about 25 minutes away. I first bought their blades at a wood show up here, and they are nothing but fantastic. I have resawn a LOT of wood with these things, and at 20 bucks each, its a bargain. If they arent working for you, its definitely the saw setup - I can attest to that.
[/QUOTE] Tony- spent a long time on the phone with Bob and the guy knows alot about bandsaws and blades. He imports the same blade stock that Suffolk machinery uses for there timberwolf blades. I just got the two blades I ordered today and shipping to the states was fair but the price on the blades was about half was Lee Valley wants for the same blades. Good people worth checking out www.tufftooth.com

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Mistakes are mandatory-learning from them is optional. http://www.opensourceluthiersupply.com

I recently had to deal with some knots in some opportunity grade IRW sides I got from Allied Lutherie. I flooded the knots with cyano and managed to bend the sides without any problems.