Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Nice job. Wouldn’t have picked the bridge for Blackwood. My Japanese is rusty but I think it’s subarashi yo!

Steve

Nice work John. I thought it was camphor at a glance.

A log that size will cut some nice sets Pete. I broke this one down last weekend. Nice fb but only 700mm diameter so not as much room to manoeuvre.
Regards
Steve

Very nice Allen and good to see Parra are putting it to the cowboys at the moment.

Looks nice Paul.

cheers
Steve

Looks fantastic Nick. Nice blackwood.

cheers
Steve

They look great John,
Was the forest oak easy to bend?

Steve

There is a local box maker that takes my scraps and as you can imagine there is quite a quantity. As a sawmiller you do your best not to waste anything but by the time you saw, sand and dock out all the fault a very small percentage of a log ends up being marketable sets.
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Steve

I think the water filled cracks in the surface are giving people the idea it is an oak. Looks like red ironbark to me or perhaps another heavy eucalypt. Nothing special I'm afraid.

regards
Steve

I have a deltron moisture meter that works well. It is the prong type with a slide hammer. After taking a reading I look up the conversion tables to make the corrections for timber species, temp. etc. It gives a good estimate. For accurate moisture content I use the microwave to dry a clean sample a...

Some nice colour there. The wide sap band and heart impact on what is left for tonewood but looks like some reasonable pieces there. I find splitting is best done when you have cut the rounds to the right length eg. 600mm for back and sides. Longer lengths are harder to split. I cut my tenor sides 4...

Hi Willl,
some nice trees there. You might want to check on the brush box though. It usually has a smooth bark. The bunya looks a good size. I find knots are the biggest issue when milling it. The red cedar has nice form. Personally I would let it grow a bit longer.
cheers
steve

Very difficult to tell if it has fiddle back without cutting into it. Sometimes a bit of dimpling under the bark is an indication. As fiddle back is easiest to see on the quarter you could do a shallow intersecting bore cut with your chainsaw to extract a small sample. If there is no figure it is st...

I agree. The smell is very distictive. The set below is from one of those older big trees that woodrat mentioned. The colour can vary a lot. Smaller trees can be paler in colour. The block you have pictured does look a lot like NSW rosewood.
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Steve

Looks good Luke. Couldn't quite follow your neck build description. (probably just my lack of technical vision). Do you have a pic.

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Steve

Snakey, your carport sounds like a good spot but be careful. I had some neck blocks ruined this week by a warm NW wind and too much air flow. Gently does it. Particularly if the timber is dead green.
cheers
steve

Hi Snakey, Through trial and error I find it best to cut the log up straight away. I cut my blackwood into 6mm thick pieces for backs and sides and 25mm planks for necks and cabinet work. It is also handy to have some 100x100 and 75x75. You then need to rack it out in a suitable environment with res...

Nice, very nice. Looks familiar to me.
cheers
Steve

That looks like nice bunya Daniel, The type that might perform well as discussed in another thread recently. How thick is it?

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Steve

Put a lazy susan on the on the step ladder and you could spray them from the bean bag. When your finished with some minor modifications it could double as a weather cock.

cheers
Steve

Yes, our friends in the pacific must have been busy establishing these 'mahogany plantations'. Why would we cut down our own timber when we can support this sort of enterprise. I would recommend a trip to these and any other group of pacific islands to view first hand the harvesting of these "planta...

I am also interested in the performance of these timbers. I have cut bunya and hoop and just this week learned of a large norfolk island pine log to be sawn up. After searching other threads it seems that provided the grain is tight, straight and uniform it should be suitable but it would be good to...

Hi Brian, Here is a solid body that I built from a Eucalypt ( E. Resinafera ) You may find that most Eucalypts are very heavy,This one is. A Gym workout prior to playing to strengthen the back and shoulders is required. That said it sustains for a day and a half and I put that down to the heavy den...

Looks good Alan. Nice colours in that Blackwood. Looking forward to more pics.

cheers
Steve

I cut some red cedar sets a year ago and found they weren't that popular. I suspect the large poors and softer timber might not be as good as other timbers acoustically. Red Cedar that has closer grain and greater density might perform better. Pictured are a quartersawn set and a back sawn set. Real...