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These are terrible pictures of a plank of wood I just got over the hollidays.. It is pretty dense wood. Has a lively taptone. There is a spritz of mineral spirits to show the color and the tight curl. This is definitely a non-traditional guitar wood.

John Kinnaird38725.7638657407

John, i think the (space) in the file name is causing the problem. Try renaming the file with out spaces.

opp, nevamind LanceK38725.7638657407

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

A clue. It's an American wood.   In fact its found in the USA.

Sycamore ?

Some kind of maple?

Serge

Not sycamore, no kind of Maple. But doesn't it have a nice curl!

Locust?

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Locust is not a bad guess, but no.

Curly Texas mesquite

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

I sure look FW to know what it is, cause i found an old dresser with planks of wood that look a lot like these, there's an ink stamp on 1 of the planks reading oct. 1956, i'll post a pic later on!

Serge

Dang Lance
   You nailed it. I am impressed with your wood savvy.

Mesquite and Locust smoke meat equally well. Save those cutoffs John.

Good idea Bruce

On the same trip I picked up a piece of Texas ebony for the finberboard and bridge. I wish I had enough for the binding. The plan is to make an all Texas guitar. The Lone star guitar.

John, just last night i was watching a program that my TIVO picked up because it had a key word "Guitar Maker" in the title. It was a story of an old man that lives in Texas and has built guitar for decades, his name escapes me now, but anyways, hes 89 years old, was a pilot in WWII and builds almost all his guitars out of Texas mesquite. During the story it showed him splitting a log and then re sawing it into back plates, and they looks remarkably like what you have

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

[QUOTE=John Kinnaird] Good idea Bruce

On the same trip I picked up a piece of Texas ebony for the finberboard and bridge. I wish I had enough for the binding. The plan is to make an all Texas guitar. The Lone star guitar.[/QUOTE]

Check with your brother! he sent me a fret board, bridge and headplate of Texas Ebony

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

That's an interesting story. I would like to know more about this guy.

My brother, who i was visiting, and I went out wood prospecting to this local East Texas sawmill that had a remarkable collection of wood. He got some bicote and I got this mesquite and some aromatic red cedar (like folks use to make cedar chests) that is knot free enough to make a guitar.   I have seen one other guitar made from aromatic red cedar and it sounded great and looked like it was made from pink ivory or something equally exotic. Plus it repelled moths (an added bonus feature)
As far as the mesquite as concerned, I have never seen a mesquite tree that was as big as this tree must have been to make such a plank.

[QUOTE=LanceK] [QUOTE=John Kinnaird] Good idea Bruce

On the same trip I picked up a piece of Texas ebony for the finberboard and bridge. I wish I had enough for the binding. The plan is to make an all Texas guitar. The Lone star guitar.[/QUOTE]

Check with your brother! he sent me a fret board, bridge and headplate of Texas Ebony [/QUOTE]

Ah yes, I think he bought some of that on the same trip. But I did not see any long enough for binding. Don't you think the T. Ebony is interesting wood. It has a sparkle to it that makes me think it will look great polished out. The owner of the sawmill said it was a true ebony.

Bro--I've tracked down a bit of info on the T. Ebony. The fancy-pants name is Pithecellobium Flexicaule. (Try saying that fast 5 times.) It is from the family Fabaceae, which I don't think includes the ebonies. But in the same family as the T.E. are the Acacias, the Prosopis genus (Mesquite), and Olneya tesota, or Desert Ironwood. So, it has a fine pedigree, and should mix well with members of its own family.

KBW

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

That is interesting.   Particularly for the fact that mesquite is in the same family as the Acacias. You can see the family resemblance now that you mention it.