Official Luthiers Forum!

This evening a customer cancelled his appointment, so I used the time in my workshop for some resaw work:


Two maple Les Paul Tops "Pyramid"
https://picasaweb.google.com/1157931855 ... 9523371538



Two more sets of Pommel Eucalyptus:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1157931855 ... 5256954642


Two more set Figured Flamed Swiss Pear:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1157931855 ... 1396874994


Tomorrow some flamed walnut and some flamed ash...

Cheers, Alex

Alex,
One of the things I like so much about this forum community is the way members often show simple and obvious methods of doing various tasks. Many times, they seem painfully obvious AFTER someone else shows them to us. I really like your method of using black-stained mats in various shapes and sizes to check for the best grain and figure orientation on your sets. I have always used an external mold for this task, but your solution is really nice. It's the sort of thing that makes me slap my head and think: "Why didn't I do that?" I doubt I'll ever be in the position of evaluating so many nice sets of wood, but if I were, I think I'd copy that idea. Thank you for all these nice photos.
Patrick

@ all: it is my pleasure to share my work and wood with you all, and thank you very much for your friendly comments and lots of views.

@patrick:

yes...I know how you feel, I had the same feeling when I stole this idea from someone. I can not remember anymore where and when, but I was also speechless when I first saw this very simple and nice idea. Instead of using these acyl, see through templates it is so much better with these black outside templates...so...have fun with my idea...I just stole it...

@: Blake

looks interesting this fence, how does it exactly work? Also I am doubting about the need for this...also the price seems quite high to me? looking forward to see your results with this tool

cheers, alex

...toady I did not have so much time...enough to resaw 4 sets Juglans Nigra, Eastern Black Walnut, but the tree has growen here in Europe...

Today some figured-ash with core, aka Olive-Ash, some with a bit water on to high lighten the figure...


















https://picasaweb.google.com/1157931855 ... egelEsche#

Here something unique....





https://picasaweb.google.com/1157931855 ... delAlmond#

Found a nice old maple board yesterday in a dusty corner of the company...

https://picasaweb.google.com/1157931855 ... aulTopsII#

So , are you going to sell any of this wood, or just tease us?!!

Found this today in a corner...

https://picasaweb.google.com/1157931855 ... 7860588690

Well then how about you spend a little more time tonight & get us some real pictures!

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

While we're waiting on Chris, here's some Coco I recently sliced.

The backs were done over a week ago, the sides just a day ago. The color of the backs was just like the sides when sawn. You can see little parts of the sides getting more orange like the backs.

Kevin Looker

_________________
I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

nice old school tonewood, dead end quarter sawn...nice!!!

Has been a while...but I have been bussy with other stuff. Today I had a quite difficult task, due to the thickness of the boards being really hard at the edge. But finally all went fine like calcluated before.

- one Back for calssical guitar size, 4 pieces with "Rally-Stripes"

- 2 side sets, one for the back, the other one goes to a good friend, he will slice it up for bindings. He also needs one headplate and one piece for doing soundhole inlay stuff...see last picture. I hate to let it go, but he is a good guy!!!

- 3 headplates with sap for me...

Everthing free of defects, perfect quater sawn, nice black and yellow colors.



this stuff is not funny to work with












Cheers, Alex

One of these days.....
Have been bussy for 3 houres, just to end up with some nice fire wood. Too many cracks, worm holes, cupping...
Tried to get some sets out of a few very thin left over pieces of Macassar ebony, till now without big succes.

Anyhow, at least one nice top for a Les Paul, not Ebony, but nice Vavona, one inch thick:

Nice. What's the rally stripe wood? African blackwood? How bad did it wreck your blade? I have a chunk of blackwood I'm thinking of cutting up.

That blackwood looks pretty amazing... it's so rare to find a piece with such straight grain that isn't full of knots and inclusions

You seem to have your retirement plan mapped out Herr Dalbergia.
Nice one!

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Thank you for your comments.

Yes, totally forgot to tell what the Rally-Stripe Back is, but of course this is Dalbergia Melanoxylon / African Blackwood / Grenadill.
The Woodmaster CT was not new anymore, and after this few cuts through the Blackwood I could not feel any differnece. The Blade is still working satisfying for soft stuff, like the Vavona, but for the Macassar i tried yesterday it doesn´t work nice anymore. So I will resaw now some tops and other soft wood, then take a fresh one and resharpen this one. Actually I have a resharpend one which I will try then.

Next to come some Swiss Pear / Wild Service / Wild Apple and the Kauri Tops. And this strange smelling stuff....

Stay tuned...if interested

I'm having wood-envy.
Really nice looking material!
I especially like the LP Maple sets.
I may have to stop sawing up stumps and purchase some "real" lumber.
Thanks for sharing,
Dan

_________________
wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

For Dan: A funny one piece maple LP Top, from this afternoon...

Cool and unusual!
I like it!
Dan

_________________
wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Finally managed to resaw the Kauri Tops. Great look and strange tap tone. Very strong, high and loud, almost like a rosewood. Very fine grained, nice colour, really something different...looking forward to built with soon.

Cheers, Alex

Also got new shoes form asics....yellow and grey....

And on Friday the 13th I stumbled over this piece of wood...

Today something I really have no idea what it is...it looks like limba or something comparable, but it is really heavy, hard and dense. Any ideas anybody??? It is for sure not Eucalyptus, also no Avodire...I have no guess....

BTW the back is 4 pieces...

here a link where you can zoom into the pictures:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1157931855 ... UnkownIII#

Unreal Cordia Elaeagnoides, Bocote, kind of blistered, pommele figure, 4 piece back, lots of possibilities for laying out the permiter....

Link for zooming into the pictures:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1157931855 ... desBocote#