Official Luthiers Forum!

Where can I buy billets of Indian Rosewood and Sitka Spruce? I always find stuff already cut up and prefer to save a little money doing my own re-sawing. I have a Laguna 24" that cuts through wood like butter. It is very satifying to take wood from the rough all the way to the finished product.

Any leads on where to purchase billets?

Tomas, I'm not sure but check with Bob C. There were some folks at the last ASIA gathering that were IER suppliers. The card I have from them is Sono Prima (USA), Inc. I don't remember there names other than Bob calling them son #1 and son #2. I'm sure some of the other sponsors could help you out as well.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

Getting EIR in billet form seems pretty difficult; I believe there's legislation in place to ensure stuff that comes out of India, anyway, is processed there, to create economic opportunities on-site as it were. Gilmerwoods.com has some EIR, might try there, although it's going to be tough to beat the set prices.

There are some eBay sellers who sell Sitka billets, I *think* Alaskatonewoods does, and I thought Larry Stamm did Engelman, but I may be way wrong here.

You might check with Larry Davis on the rosewood, and Shane Neifer on the Spruce. He sells Lutz spruce, which is a sitka hybrid.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Drop Brent a line at Alaska Specialty woods. I'm sure he'll sell you a billet. The shipping might be a bit brutal though...

Check it out:

ASW

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Search on the ol' ebay "exotic hardwoods" MT

I've had great success with Gilmerwood (gilmerwood.com)out of Portland, Oregon.Go to their Unique and One of a Kind Board section. Good Folks....good wood.

I have looked for EIR a few times for electric carved tops, it is out there, but it is kind of hard to find. I have never really found a steady supplier for it.

Believe it or not it is much easier to find BRW in billet form.

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

Tomas,

I can't help with EIR billets. My supplier in India indicated that they are not permitted to ship it in that form, I asked him as I was looking o cut sets rather import them. As for spruce, as Don said (Thanks Don!) I do harvest and process Lutz Spruce, a hybrid between Sitka nad White spruces. I am a low volume producing focusing on quality so I typically do not sell billets but every once in a while I will sell one. PM me if you are interested, I did just ship one out to one of our members recently. On the Lutz, I just now getting at least two high end builders offering Lutz as their default spruce. I will post links to the comments they have written on their sites about this wood in the near future, when I post Part 3 of the harvest thread I started last year.

Thanks

Shane

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Canada