Official Luthiers Forum!

So I've been really taking an interest in making guitars and I have been looking through this forum a lot. I want to start practicing building necks. I found an old piece of oak in my basement would this be a good wood to start practicing routing/carving/ect on? thanks

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" Blues is a low down achin chill, if you ain't never had it, I hope you never will."

Robert Johnson

Hi there and welcome to the OLF my friend!

Oak would work but would be harder to carve than say mahogany. I also think Oak would make a neck that was too heavy for my liking should you wish to take your practice neck and use it on an actual guitar.

Welcome aboard!

I'd agree with Hesh on this. But I would say that anything that you can practice on is better than the practice you're not getting now. If you're not very experienced with wood, oak may be a very good starting point. Because it has such defined grain, and open pores, you can learn how the grain can affect your use of tools on it, both hand and powered. You can also learn how to sharpen, because as Hesh said, oak is going to be harder than a lot of woods. You might as well learn how to get things sharp while youre practicing. You can even practice some pore-filling. I say go for it...and welcome to the forum.

Darrin

Welcome, dylanger! I take every opportunity to practice that I can. Any wood will work for practice.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

Thanks a lot.......I made a piece if a neck thats about 4 inches long and it turned out a lot beter than I thought. I did notice there was a lot of pores and I'm very glad to hear that it is harder than other woods that I would use on an actualy guitar. The chisels I used were high quality but I doubt they've been sharpend in the last 6-8.

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" Blues is a low down achin chill, if you ain't never had it, I hope you never will."

Robert Johnson

Good for you for practicing. I don't think I practice my technique enough, always letting the next practice session be on an actual instrument. Mahogany shouldn't be much more expensive than oak if you want to practice on something that will feel a bit more like what you'll be using. Maple if a fender style guitar.

Don't neglect the use of rasps, scrapers, and spokeshaves. All were invaluable when i carved my electric neck. I just bought a decent rasp this weekend at woodcraft, and i think it's going to be pretty handy. I'd like to get a finer one and a wood file as well. Good job practicing!!

Darrin

Is there an online store that I can find these tools at....I dont have a lot of money cause im a high school student that only gives a couple guitar lessons a week

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" Blues is a low down achin chill, if you ain't never had it, I hope you never will."

Robert Johnson

Lee Valley, Wood Workers Supply, Wood Craft, Wooden Boat store. All of these are places you can find all sorts of wood working tools. Kuntz planes and spoke shaves are a decent value but the Veritas spokeshaves are Like butter.