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Hello and very best wishes for 2023!

I just wanted to share with you something interesting I could get my hands on, end of last year.
A few (about 6 or 7) boards of Qulited / Pommele Sapeli or Sipo.
I was told it should be Sipo, but to be honest, I am not super experienced into telling
apart all the single species from the Entandrophragma genus. Might be also Sapeli...not sure yet.

The boards are all about 520 cm long (about 17 feet) and up to more than 100 cm (3 feet) wide.
But of course some are also more narrow like 30cm (1 feet)
Thickness is at least 1 1/4 inch but actually most of it is more like 30 to 35mm thick.

The figure is quite good, I would say medium to high, and the color is very nice.

I did not yet have the time for starting the layout for the backs and the sides billets, but hopefully
I can do so tomorrow.

Here are some pictures of the raw sawn wood / lumber:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZjE2ft6ShbZzSfpNA

Cheers, Alex

That’s some nice looking wood!

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Wowza! Yeah those are quite special.

Nice figure. Do you plan to sell some larger sizes suitable for making solidbody guitars or that would work as a droptop on a solidbody guitar?

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Sapele usually has a slightly spicy/peppery smell, whereas sipo has very little/no smell. Sipo feels a bit lighter weight, and is somewhat less dense.

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Guitar Maker and Purveyor of the World's Finest Tonewoods
http://www.aaronhixguitars.com/
http://stores.ebay.com/A-Hix-Tonewood-a ... r-Supplies

Alex you are a lucky man. I don't want to even think about what you paid for these!


Dave

That wood looks great. Here's an example of sipo. I have three other sets from two sources that look like this, but I don't know if this figuring is typical of sipo.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Nice wood

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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.

Hello Chris, the lumber is too thin to make a full solid body for a super-strat or something like this.
But for sure there will be some pieces which are not long enough for steelstring backs, and these will become some drop-top guitar tops.

With this wood I am onbly aiming for steelstring backs, non classical sizes. In my experience classical guitar guys, may them be builder or players, are not very excited about any
Mahogany kind of wood at all. For steelstring backs I am always going for at least 55cm length, but if possible 60cm, since I like to reach the length to include the heel-cap into the back-wood.
So anything which will just be around 48-54cm will become electrik guitar tops.

I am not sure if I will sell some, somehow I am addicted into collecting tone-wood, but you never know what the future will bring....so I will remeber you in case I want to sell some!

Cheers, Alex

Thank you very much for your explanation, Aron!

I always felt that Sipo is of higher density...hahahah....but I might be totaly wrong about that.
The wood feels quite heavy for me, too, but I am also not so experienced with hand-lifting such big boards and I might be wrong.

Anyhow, I think this guy from the Wood-Database provides a nice summary about some of these Mahogany species, and I am sure I will invest some time to find out what I got there.

https://www.wood-database.com/wood-arti ... e-lowdown/


BTW, the guy I got these boards from is an old man running a big bandsaw here in Germany, a family owend company with decades of experience resawing BIG logs
like Sapeli, Sipo, Bubinga and so on. I am sure he has seen some wood in his life, and he stated these boards are Sipo...

We will see.....

You might be totally wrong with your guess

Hello, thank you for sharing this nice picture of your amazing wood.
I have also seen this kind of figure before, but I am not even sure how to call this kind of figure at all.
For me that´s neither quilted nor pommele, more like a...well I don´t know
Perhaps some kind of pommele, but somehow quite different.
I have seen this ind of figure in Eucalyptus wood, too.

With which descirption / name of the figure was it sold to you?

I've seen this kind of figuring described for sipo and other woods as plum pudding (which I don't get) or veined (which makes more sense to me). This close up of the figuring on the guitar in the photo above shows the "vein" figuring better. It has a 3-D appearance to it like you see with quilted or flame figuring.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Plum Pudding....yes you are right, I have also seen and read this before, also very interesting and nice !

Good Morning,

last Saturday I could find some time to work on these giant boards.
Finding the best layout for the back and side billets is always a bit challanging but one of my most
favoured part of the work.
Considering the yield, quality and quantity, finding the best possibilities and finally getting this long
and difficult to handle material down to smaller sizes takes lots of time, but you can get a first idea
with how many sets and in which qualities you will (perhaps) end up with.

I added some more pictures and also a short video:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZjE2ft6ShbZzSfpNA

Good Morning,

last weekend I found some time to bring the raw length cut lumber pieces into my workshop
and saw out the billets for the backs and the sides. For this job I love using my SCM panel saw .
Fast, safe and clean.

In total I could get the following yield

- about 100 nice figured Pen-Blanks for wood-turning.
- about 12 neck blanks
- about 10 billets for "Drop-Top" solid guitar tops.
- 26 billets for each, backs and sides

The raw lumber is about 25 to 30mm in thickness. So after planning and thicknessing the billets,
I will not be able to resaw one billet into 6 slices. That would be not realistic, at least with my resaw set-up.
Also, I prefer more to end up with some fewer sets, but therefore with these sets being perfect resawn, and with enough thickness
for every kind of building philosophy.
All the billets should be flawless clean on all sides by about 22mm, and with this thickness I can easily and safe resaw 4 slices, which
will hopefully end up in 52 nice and heavy figured sets.

Of course I could not resist and had to run at least one back billet through the planer, to get an idea of the figure and the color.

I added some more pictures and videos, which can be found following the link below:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZjE2ft6ShbZzSfpNA



Cheers, Alex

Just had a peek - WOW

_________________
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.

Wow is right!


Steve

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"