Official Luthiers Forum!

I have a cousin that dives for abalone, and he sent me these shells. Don't
really know what to do with them.. Guess I could cut them up and grind
them into blanks, but seems like too much work! Anyone interested in
buying them? I've seen em going on ebay for like 25-75 per shell (these
are about 7-8.5 inches across which is a good size shell)...Maybe 'll just
pop em all on ebay for $150 and see what happens...or if anyone here
wants em for that price let me know... that works out to $18.75 per shell
:) Here are some pics...

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

How about selling just a couple of them? I'll buy 2 or 3 of them....

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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."

Well I got em on ebay right now.... if they don't sell they I'll hit ya up :)

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Ya, Let us know John.
I would take a few as well.
I have one but it has too many worm holes.
I used some pieces anyway for a sound hole inlay.
It is a bit of work to cut out but you can choose the better pieces for a particular inlay.
It adds to that "hand built" approach, if you are into that sort of thing.

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

I use them to hold guitar pics. They sure are beautiful aren't they?

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

I'm always amazed when I see the price that abalone shell goes for. Not critisizing your price mind you, but I used to know some abalone divers who would just bag them up and throw them away. Now that I want some...

Also, when we were on our honeymoon in New Zealand, I saw a paua shell in a souvenir shop that had been polished, it looked awesome. The price? $NZ10, which was only about $AU7.50 or about $US4 at the time. Now why didn't I buy that? Well, I wasn't building guitars then. I keep telling my wife that we need to go back to New Zealand for another holiday, haven't told her why.

Here on the west coast I can buy em all day long for about $7 bucks... Maybe I'll start sellin' them...

Ronn

[QUOTE=RCoates] Here on the west coast I can buy em all day long for
about $7 bucks... Maybe I'll start sellin' them...

Ronn[/QUOTE]

Do it dude!

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

A word of advice to anyone who plans to cut their own shell. I dive for a living and for a while was collecting some local shells for inlay purposes. I cut and sanded a batch down and will never do it again. The shell is hard on your tools, eats up sand paper and because it's naturally curved you don't get much usable material per shell. On top of that it's incredibly bad for your lungs and makes an unbelievable mess in your shop. I talked to the folks at Depaule and they use a saw that runs water on the shell (sorry, I don't know the name of the tool) as it's being cut so as to cut down on the mess and hazzardousness to their health. If you have access to this tool I suppose it wouldn't be so bad but for me, I now leave the shell in the ocean and buy my supplies from the pros. It's so much easier.

I actually had 9 shells from these and I cut one up and ground some inlay
pieces. It wasn't so bad but was not easy either. I got about 7-8 pieces
about 1-2 inches square. Probably almost an ounce of material. It was a
lot of work though... hence the reason I'm selling them!

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

a wet tile saw will make the job easier, a cheap one about $90 from harbor freight. jim petterson's book also shows a number of simple jigs to make the job easier as well. but still a messy process in the best of circumstances. but if you've a surfeit of hours and paucity of dollars, ....