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Cheap or free woods

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Boo
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Nothing wrong with this as a self-build project!

@darrenking That is amazing, I’ll have to have a go at that. It sounds really good too. Tonewood my *rse! 😁🤘

Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸


   
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jamesbisset
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Horse Chestnut anyone?

F52B32A2 36F1 46E0 8D24 DB514A5B3F3B

We bought the house 18 months ago with an acre of abandoned garden on a steep slope at the back. It’s full of larch and sycamore and other stuff I haven’t identified yet, all 20 metres tall and fighting for light. 

One day it will be a lovely orchard. 

Minor complication though, I’m not allowed a chain saw.

Jack of all trades and master of my own destiny. It’s only a small destiny.


   
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Boo
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Minor complication though, I’m not allowed a chain saw.

@jamesbisset Nice! Why are you not allowed a chainsaw? Says who? 

Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸


   
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jamesbisset
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@boo I managed to give myself four stitches in the head with a shovel last year. A chain saw doesn’t bear thinking about.

Jack of all trades and master of my own destiny. It’s only a small destiny.


   
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Rocknroller912
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When I got double glazed windows and doors a few years ago I saved the mahogany door steps and pine frames. All good quality close grained imported timber with a solid tap tone. During the summer I bought a small circular saw and cut some of the pine pieces into sizes suitable for acoustic bracing. Already used some of it on an acoustic back and it was nice to work with. Pic attached and leaving the final carving until just before fitting to the back and sides together. The cross banding was left over cut offs from a spruce sound board for bouzouki. Measure twice cut once and never throw any scraps away

Another length was used to make a bass bar on a voilin restoration, it carved nicely and produced a good tone. 

I haven't used any of the mahogany yet but it would be suitable for a carved type instrument, probably a mandolin as I don't have anything wide enough for full size guitar ribs.

I'm now refusing all offers of free wood as I've run out of storages space. It's heartbreaking but if I take any more in there we won't be a space to work.

image

 

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Rocknroller912
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@jamesbisset

Ive tried local horse chestnut for wood turning after it had been split for five years and dried. It wasn't good to work with having a wide grain. Ive kept some small bits to see if it improves with time but most of it went to firewood.

Some people call me a tool, others are less complimentary. Tools being useful things.


   
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jamesbisset
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@rocknroller912 Yeah, I heard chestnut was reasonable for carving but not much good for tonewood.

At some point I’ll need to fell some of the sycamore. There’s a carpenter over by with a chainsaw and an attitude. It seems criminal to use it for firewood, but I’m not really geared up for years of air drying timber.

I’ll see how I feel after I’ve completed my first Bailey Build though 🙂

Jack of all trades and master of my own destiny. It’s only a small destiny.


   
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jamesalexandermcmillan
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So far, beside "proper stuff", I have used:

two 50 year old teak shelves. I was told that it was too oily to use for a guitar. I made a body by glueing strips together. I made two necks using the same method then carving them. No problems at all with any of them  .

two 100 year old doors from a big house in Glasgow to make two bodies and a top for a semi acoustic tele guitar. This was less good. The wood was a bight lightweight but I learned a lot in the process.

my brothers dining room table to make a few bodies and a double neck body. I think it is maple. They are certainly heavy and tightly grained. Still working on these.

I have also bought a two squire teles and a squire strat for buttons and experimented on them. None of the results will give prs anything to worry about but I built a 12 string strat and a short scale bass that worked and again all were part of the learning process.

My most recent acquisition is a very old mahogany table from a farm outbuilding that I will chop up and we'll see where we go with that.

All wood is worth working on even if it ends up as a starter guitar for someone.

Jim


   
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Rocknroller912
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@jamesbisset

An alternative to years of air drying for a solid body could be polyethylene glycol or PEG. It's used by wood turners to work with green wood. Make up 30% or 50% solution with water and soak the wood for 3 weeks. It replaces the moisture at cellular level and stops it from cracking. I've never tried it but it was a big thing a few years ago. Wouldn't be any good for an acoustic though.

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darrenking
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@rocknroller912 this chemical is often used as a veneer softener, especially for burrs and burls which have a tendency to go VERY crinkly after slicing. Brush it on to both sides of the veneer leave it overnight and then assess before squashing between two clamped boards with polythene in between leaves and thenleave for a couple of days. Once you take it out it should be much flatter. These days, I just try to buy flat veneer in the first place!

Darren


   
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darrenking
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@rocknroller912 with regard to guitar bodies, it must be easier to buy dry wood in the first place. If you do happen to have a felled tree that you want to turn into guitars then, unless you can find a local kiln drier, patience is going to be the order of the day. Any accelerated drying is likely to cause some splits and checks so I’d just let nature do it’s thing and you will end up with the highest yield of useable timber.

Darren


   
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jamesbisset
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An alternative to years of air drying for a solid body could be polyethylene glycol or PEG.

Off-topic but interesting. My darling dear (for it is she) does pyrography, and thin slices of log are always intriguing to her. But every time I bring in a couple of 3-5mm slices and store them in a dry room, they start to split in the centre.

Maybe this is the erm... solution.

Jack of all trades and master of my own destiny. It’s only a small destiny.


   
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Rocknroller912
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@darrenking

Thanks for this info, I didn't know it could be used to soften veneer but I would agree it's easier to find ready to use stock. I was only suggesting to James that it might be a way of using the green sycamore that he wants to cut from his property, although I suspect he will find that not much of it is useable for instruments. 

 

Some people call me a tool, others are less complimentary. Tools being useful things.


   
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darrenking
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@jamesbisset It’s going to take sodding ages to cut down trees with something safer than a shovel!! Can’t you read them something really boring or terrible (Jeffrey Archer?) until they just dry up and fall over of their own accord?

Chestnut logs are great for growing Shiitake and oyster mushrooms but pretty much useless for most other things apart from burning, which they are very good at for kindling or when you need a quick heat boost from your fire. The species  is just too fast growing, and therefore too soft, for most guitar making although I guess you could use it as an electric body core if you had a load of it and it was free! At least they contribute something that helps Brussels sprouts taste ok though!


   
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darrenking
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@jamesbisset I have a stack of lovely 3mm birch ply off cuts from a job that we are currently doing that are perfect for practitioners of the wood burning art! Email me your address and I’ll send your good lady some for Christmas. You can even put on your own little label and pretend that they are from you! It can be our secret You’ll never have to buy a drinks coaster again!

Darren


   
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rockpile99
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Here's a case in point - I've just made this neck blank out of laminated pine shelving strips. I don't think knotty pine will make a proper neck but I want to try Mark's "angled headstock with jig and router" technique and don't want to ruin my lovely chunk of flamed maple...

Guitar making is the art and science of turning expensive wood into sawdust.


   
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tv1
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I've just made this neck blank out of laminated pine shelving strips. I don't think knotty pine will make a proper neck but I want to try Mark's "angled headstock with jig and router" technique and don't want to ruin my lovely chunk of flamed maple

What a brilliant idea that I'd never thought of!

I'm going to go make some disposable / sacrificial necks to practice some neck making!

Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk


   
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jamesbisset
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@darrenking 

Email me your address and I’ll send your good lady some for Christmas

It is done!

Jack of all trades and master of my own destiny. It’s only a small destiny.


   
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jamesbisset
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@rocknroller912

although I suspect he will find that not much of it is useable for instruments. 

Phew! That’s me off the hook. Cosy log fires it is! 

Jack of all trades and master of my own destiny. It’s only a small destiny.


   
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rockpile99
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What a brilliant idea that I'd never thought of!

You're more than welcome to claim as your own tv1, afterall  sharing knowledge is what the guitar building community is all about.

(unless you were being sarcastic/already had the same idea earlier in the thread and I haven't spotted it)

PS - how does this blinking quote tool work?

Guitar making is the art and science of turning expensive wood into sawdust.


   
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