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I think it would be helpful if posts such as Mr. Rosewood's were to include a clause to the effect that the post was made with permission from Brock and/or Lance. That might have avoided some of the misunderstandings we've seen here the last few weeks.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

[QUOTE=Brock Poling]
There *IS* a specific rule about this. If you are not a sponsor you can't sell in our forums without clearing it through us first.

[/QUOTE]

Again, we are watching an ongoing 'bunfight' which can be partially blamed on the fact that there is no prominently-listed FAQ/Rules/Guidelines area on the site.

All these 'unwritten rules' are simply an invitation for problems to develop.

BTW, I bought an item (used bending iron) from a member (not a sponsor) who posted it for sale here. Apparently this was a 'forbidden activity'?

John

Jeez, I get to the shop this morning and look at this... Thank's for the warm welcome guys(?). Overall tho, I feel this is THE right place to continue.

The passion for aesthetic beauty as illustrated by the galleries of many of your personal websites, easily overwhelms the flaming on this particular thread.

When I started this thread I did feel a little uneasy... because unlike the other forums I frequent I didn't see a buy/sell area. But you can see I am more interested in the dialog of 'how' to configure this BR for divesting rather than the actual selling of it. I won't be the last guy to bring a 'long forgotten' stash of precious wood to this forum, the next guy could learn something from this.

BTW Some more history on this Brazilian Rosewood, it was the overage from an executive office suite project(furniture and wall paneling(3/4 inch!), in downtown Chicago. Could you imagine what that was like, the Rosewood aroma must have been incredible. In the 60's I paid a week's paycheck for it, so even back then it was pretty high priced. But it was readily available. I'm still located in the Chicago area, Elk Grove Village to be exact.

So... let's forget about the 'selling' aspect of this Brazilian Rosewood for a while.

Because I want to keep the dialog going on how I should proceed. I now know that there is some usefulness(to a luthier) of the narrower 4" pieces for the backs(and that's great), so the same (1/2)board can be used for the whole instrument.

Should I consider slicing(not me but by a qualified cutter) the dozen boards first into 1/8 pieces or is that something each luthier prefers to do on his own? Is 1/8 the right thickness anyway for everyone?

And again these are 84 inches long, any cutting to length done by me may not be optimum for a luthier. The builder could select for grain character and cut to length. So should I consider cutting to length, like I see in some of these side/back kits? 42 inches would be a half board length.

To save time and perhaps money I would sell what you have in billetts.
Perhaps cutting them in half @ 42 inches. maybe resaw the thickness in half.

Mr. Rosewood,

I can see that you are a reasonable fellow and I'm sorry for bringing all this down on you.

Got a first name? As you can see we like to call eachother by name round here

To your point. I'm hoping that the title of my post will gather some of the fine wood cutters that we have here.

Bob C, Brad Goodman, Don Williams, Shane Neifer, Tim Spittle and I'm sure Howard and Al C have both cut blocks in there day

How bout some help for this fellow.

Than maybe he can figure out how, when and where to sell it.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

You might consider selling the lot to one of our tone wood sponsors. They would most likely offer you a fair price for it and, more importantly, they already know the answers to your questions on how to process the wood to get the most out of it.

So much of wood processing for musical instruments depends on the actual pieces. You only know the correct course of action once you've held the wood in you hands.

I might be misreading our friend here, but it seems to me that he is more interested in seeing something beautiful made than in making money on this. I too believe that you've come to the right place because there are some very talented builders here. As for cut specs it seems to me that most backs are around .140 thickness after being sanded with sides being smaller. But i'm a novice so take my opinion as a novice one. All I know for sure is that if it ends up in the hands of one of these builders or several of them, some beautiful guitars will eventually be made.

[QUOTE=Rosewood]

Jeez, I get to the shop this morning and look at this... Thank's for the warm welcome guys(?). Overall tho, I feel this is THE right place to continue.

[/QUOTE]

I wouldn't take any of this personally, you just had the (mis) fortune of falling in the bear pit. I assure you it is not personal. The conversation seems to be centered around us having a clearly posted set of rules to avoid situations just like this one.

Now we have that, so hopefully we can avoid these misunderstandings in the future.

I realize you are a new member and there was no way to know. No harm no foul in my book.

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

I'll help you out on the thickness side of things.

You want the PRE sanded thickness of your backs and sides to be 1/8"-3/16", you need to leave room of course for sanding out cut marks from both sides of the board. Most will bring the sides down to 0.085" and the backs can be anywhere from 0.085"-0.100" after sanding.

As far as the best yield of the boards, I'd seriously considered phoning one of the aforementioned guys and talking it through with them. They of course may ask to purchase the wood from you and than sell it after re-sawing or most likely they will give you some great advise.

Thanks for considered the OLF a good place to introduce this wood. Like it's been said, you will find many great builders who will do the wood justice.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

And Bob? Borson has a resawing service for precisely this situation. His claim is he can get more yield than an average resawing activity.

I have not used his service, but that is the claim anyway.

Can you post some close up shots of the grain for us? Is it quarter sawn?

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

Not a 'for sale' , just asking...

Cleaning out the loft we found a box of Brazilian Rosewood cut-offs. Man, one of the width's is over 10 inches x 1 inch thick. And a 2" thick piece. 

Is there a luthier use for smaller pieces like this here as a bridge, peg, rosettes, inlays? Gussets?

 

 

Yes, smaller pieces can be used for all kinds of things from headplates to bridges, to inlays, to back strips.

Underneath the original endgrain heavy wax they all look like this.

I know that last one was kind of a luthier 'Pirate's Treasure Chest' for you guys, I just had to post it.

Didn't even know I still had it up there in the loft.

Hesh .. thats MY job .... see below

Rosewood .. send it all up here, I will post the pictures of some really CRAZY RITZ'ing (you will need to searcht he archives for that ...)

Then I will make guitars from it !!!! There is a LOT of excellent material in that box .. WOW

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

Thanks Greg for the pictures (and your name)

Doesn't look very well quartered from BC, but that has not stopped guys from building with it.

We do like to have as much of the material we use quatersawn as this is the most stable post cut state for wood. Flatsawn is certainly nice to look at but it does have more tendency to warp and greater dimensional changes with changes in humidity.

Off cut stuff like that would be excellent for headstock veneers, binding, rosette pieces, end graft probably even bridges and bridge plates.

People will always find a use for BRW

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Is anyone else thinking, "Be still my heart?"   

What a treasure!

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

This looks like the last of it. .020 BR veneer. 12" wide x 20+30 " long and some 6" wide.

I know we are talking solid tone wood for construction, any use for the veneers in building? Maybe for decoration?

Hesh, Yup I almost rolled on the floor with it! When Chris handed me the 40 year old corrogated cardbord box from the loft(with 50lbs of BR cut-offs in it. Each step down the ladder it lost more and more box integrity(I was balancing the box on my head) I barely missed a BR cut-off shower at the bottom step of the ladder.

Yeah Tony, I looked at your gallery... very nice. Would you inlay this veneer too, it's kinda wild.

The veneer is useful for things like purfling, for a layer in a headplate, rosettes and other decorative uses.