Wood Rebirthing

[woodrat]

Hi All, I thought that I would show everyone my latest bit of wood I have "ratted" I came across a couple of old matching single beds. I suspected that they were mahogany and the foot boards where especially interesting as I could see they were quartersawn and figured. The headboards were larger but rift tending to flatsawn. So I snipped the legs off the tail boards on the band saw and found that they were doweled not M & T. The tailboards were 800 x 220 x 22 and the action of separating the tailboards from the legs confirmed that they were indeed dead on the 1/4. The dowels presented a challenge as they meant that I had to saw the sides from each opposite face to be able to yield sides of 800 mm. That was no problem as being dead on the 1/4 meant that the match would not change within 20mm or so. Having liberated the sides I docked the middle section to give me 550 mm clear of the dowels and proceeded to saw the back pieces. I got one complete Dread size set out of each piece and that was a good result indeed.

I have used a lot of reclaimed/recycled/unloved/homeless wood over the years. It often amazes me what people throw out. Some of this wood has come from skips on sites where they have renovated a building so I always keep my eye out for a piece of wood so that I can give it a new life!

I am sure that everyone would like to hear your Rebirthing/Recycling story so tell us where you might have found a unique piece of wood that was once someone's trash but became your treasure.

Cheers

John AKA WoodRat

[Kim]

Very nice pickup John, I always have my eyes open on local kerb decorating days. Found some good stuff over the years the most recent being some 5/8 birch ply salvaged from an old BW TV. It was a top of the wuzza Chrysler from the 60's so no surprise that the ply had a nice mahogany veneer each side..I'm set for tail blocks etc for a while.

Cheers

Kim

[John Maddison]

... so tell us where you might have found a unique piece of wood that was once someone's trash but became your treasure.

I had this 'piece of trash' gifted to me a few years back by a woodworker friend in Albany. It came off the side of an old Telecom (now Telstra) 'manual' Plug & Chord style switchboard circa 1950's that had been laying in his shed for donkey's years; probably one of thousands of these bits of equipment scattered around in virtually every small country town's telephone exchange in Australia.

The board is mahogany, almost on the quarter:

The chalk markings are courtesy of Allen McFarlen & Micheal Connor who stayed here during Playmakers 2008. Tim Spittle did the resawing, and as the side board wasn't a one-piece but made up of several pieces T&G'd as well as dowelled together, with drill holes throughout, the recovery rate wasn't quite as expected ... however, still a few nice baritone uke sets, neck blanks & heel blocks were recovered.

mahogany boards.jpg (69.62 KiB) Viewed 25023 times

A b**ch to bend on a hot pipe due to grain run-out, but still some lovely bits of 'waste' wood to play with in the future!

[kiwigeo]

Im keen to chop up my oak bed but Im getting a bit of resistance from the boss

[Kamusur]

Well done John

Steve

[peter.coombe]

Well I was given an old bed about a year ago. It had been finished with shellac and the shellac was so heat damaged it was difficult to see what the wood was, but the owner was about to chuck it out. She thought it was veneered plywood. I was suspicious becasue nobody bothers to use shellac on plywood. Anyway I took it home and scraped the damaged shellac off. Blow me down if it wasn't solid Aussie Red Cedar right through. That called for a restoration job. Scraped most of the shellac off and french polished it. Looks fantastic. We sleep on it now.

[ProfChris]

I like recycling. This soprano uke is Grand Piano (top), Shelf (body) and Wardrobe (neck). Had to buy the rosewood for the fingerboard though.

Dias 18-5-11 001 front (small).JPG (167.66 KiB) Viewed 24940 times

Dias 18-5-11 003 back (small).JPG (161.92 KiB) Viewed 24940 times

[Bruce McC]

I made a soundboard for an OM style steel string from a very old draftsmans
drawing board that I found laying around my shed. I believe it is Californian Redwood,
very close grained and the section I used was quater sawn. Couldn't bookmatch the
sound board plates because there were saw kerfs about every 150mm in the back of the
drawing board (to keep it flat), so by the time I thicknessed the board to remove the kerfs on
the backside and pin holes on the front side it was too thin to resaw. As the drawing board
consisted of many pieces jointed together I ended up with five joins in the soundboard.
Only time will tell if the joins stand up to the stress of the strings. The back and sides are
EI rosewood. Soundwise the trebles are clear and bell like, the bass....um.... a bit ordinary,
but you can't win them all

[woodrat]

Nice one Bruce.....the redwood looks really nice...very different indeed. Keep them coming...this will be an interesting thread.

Hey Markus, I am sure you have an interesting story somewhere.

[charangohabsburg]

Nice bed conversion John!

Hey Markus, I am sure you have an interesting story somewhere.

Hmm, I think I don't have one. You know, I normally recycle tonewood to make furniture with it, not vice-versa.

But wait! I could make an interesting story:



Roof truss or ceiling panelling first? Both are spruce.

Although my bed is pure spruce I won't sacrifice it (because I made it myself).

[MattW]

I found an old card table top in kerb rubbish which was made of these two cedar boards,



Each board was 20mm thick so I re sawed one of them into this

[woodrat]

Well Done Matt, By cedar you mean Western Red Cedar not Aussie Red Cedar? Looks a bit like redwood too.

Nice rosette.....can we have a close up?

Cheers

John

[Pick]

Very nice pickup John, I always have my eyes open on local kerb decorating days. Found some good stuff over the years the most recent being some 5/8 birch ply salvaged from an old BW TV. It was a top of the wuzza Chrysler from the 60's so no surprise that the ply had a nice mahogany veneer each side..I'm set for tail blocks etc for a while.

Cheers

Kim

I too am a great believer in reclaiming timber. I have used mahogany bed ends with success, and I made a couple of classicals out of some kauri that 50 years ago I had made into a stereogram - the old coffin type of structure common in the 60's!
I have apiece of silky oak, quarter sawn. has anybody had success with this timber?

[MattW]

Thanks Woodrat

I'm pretty happy how the rosette turned out. Its Mahogany to match neck and bindings, Jarrah to match the fretboard, and Tas Blackwood to match the guitar back, sides and headplate. Should tie it all together nicely once its done. I think its Western red cedar, its definatety not Australian red cedar. Its going to be a dark sound board once its got a finish( clear shellac) on it, so should look a bit aged.

[woodrat]

Matt, thanks for the close up...it looks good!

Bruce/Pick , Larivee uses Silky Oak in a model...on the label it says it is Grevillea Robusta which is our Southern Silky Oak but in the US the wood gets called Silver Oak or Australian Lacewood. I have some that I sawed into guitar sets and Tod Gilding used the first set that I cut for his first build. It came from an unwanted yard tree that grew up at Pappinbarra west of Wauchope..there is some wood rebirthing for you. It is hard to get guitar sets out of though due to blind knots appearing just where you didnt want them... It looks very nice with the rays dead on the 1/4 but figure diminished quickly once you get even slightly off the 1/4.

Cheers

John

[woodrat]

I have just got to the bedheads and decided to turn them into linings as they were rift to flat sawn and not long enough for sides as the bed design was set back by 50mm between the tenons as is fairly trad for this type of bed. They will make a goodly amount of linings though.

Keep the rebirthing stories coming as its great to see what people do with other peoples chuckouts.

John

[auscab]

Here is a Kauri pine counter top that I got four tops out of, plus all the braces I needed , quater sawn ,but pretty average stuff .
I used the set on the right for my first build.My top includes some knots and nail holes and gives the guitar a bit of character.
The rest of the build was blackwood ,swapped for some chairs.
The binding ,Plane tree, found as logs after tree loppers cleaned up some trees and left it for fire wood.
Ebony from suppliers.

[rocket]

Great looking workshop you've got there Rob, a fair bit of character in that too!!
Rod.

[woodrat]

I thought that I would resurrect the Olde Wood Rebirthing thread as I have just started a new project that has involved some interesting wood rebirthing. Now some people has told me I am terrible to cut up antique furniture but I dont agree. I found this piece of furniture called a Whatnot, they were pretty popular from the 1840s to the 1880s. The best examples were Brazilian Rosewood. I decided to buy it exactly for the purpose of rebirthing it to become a guitar...
Anyway I got it out yesterday to saw it up. I was hoping to get two back sets from it. I will have to find some material for sides to be able to complete the project though as the piece was not big enough being only 600 wide. The shelves were 10mm thick so I decided to drop it down the middle as trying to get 3 pieces was too risky. The sawing went well and I got my two back sets although the one from the second largest shelf will need a bit of Luthier Magic to disguise the spindle holes that just encroach on the centre join. I will probably put a decorative wedge in there in the same wood as the binding to cover them. So I got in the end out of the two lower shelves 2 backsets , 3 bridge blanks, a headplate veneer, a fingerboard and some material for bridge plated and a lot of small offcuts.
So I am happy with the result and the timber is very dark, dense and resonant:) I am looking for some BRW for the sides if anybody has any lying around

Cheers

John

[charangohabsburg]

Wow, that looks tasty!

Now some people has told me I am terrible to cut up antique furniture but I dont agree.

I am sure that there are people who are willing to resaw a precious old guitar into an ordinary book shelf or at least use the back to veneer the top of a coffee table, etc.

[woodrat]

[/quote]I am sure that there are people who are willing to resaw a precious old guitar into an ordinary book shelf or at least use the back to veneer the top of a coffee table, etc. [/quote]

Markus....that would be twisted!

[charangohabsburg]

I am sure that there are people who are willing to resaw a precious old guitar into an ordinary book shelf or at least use the back to veneer the top of a coffee table, etc.

Markus....that would be twisted!

Would? John, I'm afraid that it already happened many times!

[Dekka]

This Brush Box and Camphor Laurel bass was made out of a piece my old carport and scrap of CL I had lying around. I made this with very little knowledge about instruments (particularly scale length) as you can see by the ugliness at the nut. (Couldn't buy strings long enough) I will rectify this soon by recessing the string ferrules further into the end of the body. The nut and saddle were fashion from the handle of an aluminium meat tenderiser.
I got the idea to do the bass when I knocked one end of the stick of Brush Box of the top off the stack and it rang like a gong when it hit the concrete. It's turned out to be a great bass for my needs although it probably sustains for too long IMHO.

[woodrat]

Finished sawing the BRW wotnot which is now just not In the end I got 2 backsets two fingerboard caps ( I will laminate the BRW onto EIR I think for the fingerbords) 3 bridge blanks, two headplate veneers 7 bridge plates and enough left to bind the fingerboards and what ever else I may need.

Cheers

John

[Kamusur]

Well done again John. Knew a lady once who had a wotnot but yours looks better.

Steve