motsetiaw
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My main instrument is: Fleeting jazz nylon
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Post by motsetiaw on Nov 29, 2023 10:17:36 GMT
Do any of the luthier/builders on here use wood from a local or sustainable source?
My little yew Brook Bovey was formed from a tree downed in a south coast winter storm/ with the wood cut in a sawmill very local to their workshop..
I recall many moons ago Taylor was challenged to build an acoustic from pallet wood (& succeeded)...
I have noticed an increase in free to collect solid furniture & pianos online & wondered if any of the makers have used these resources? the likes of mahogany or walnut from an old piano in their builds?..or the doors from a wardrobe for instance...?
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francis
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Post by francis on Nov 29, 2023 10:49:40 GMT
I use some mahogany from old furniture for necks, Adrian Lucas uses reclaimed materials quite a lot in his builds
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
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Post by colins on Nov 29, 2023 11:22:44 GMT
Many of the builders on here have been doing this for very many years, recycled wood from furniture and locally sourced wood is commonly used. I have made guitars from yew and native cherry that came down locally to me in the 1987 storm, also Plane trees cut down in Berkley Square and sycamore from a tree cut down in Castle Howard, the list goes on. The Honduran mahogany necks that I used came from mainly from several Victorian bed frames, Walnut and BRW from sideboards and other furniture, Cuban Mahogany from a drop leaf table. I even made a complete guitar from my next door neighbours old mahogany window sills and frames they also produced a lot of necks and wood for ukuleles, you can't get more locally sources than that, well actually you can. Dave White and myself have used many guitar tops from a Port Orford Cedar tree that grew in Dave's front garden and that we processed when he had it cut down, and great wood it was as well. A lot of us also use Bog Oak from Norfolk for finger boards bridges and B&S sets. Since brown furniture became unfashionable it has become a great and affordable source of tonewood.  This became six Cuban Mahogany B&S sets  including this set now on an OM14 belonging to another forum member  This OO-13 guitar is made completely from English sourced woods B&S, English walnut (old furniture) Top, Port Orford Cedar (Dave's front Garden!) Neck, Bird Cherry (1987 storm casualty) Bridge/FB, Norfolk Bog Oak This guitar is now also owned by a forum member.   So in short, the answer is yes a lot of us do. Colin |
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Post by borborygmus on Dec 3, 2023 10:54:15 GMT
This is a guitar made for me by the marvellous RosieTGC . All English timber: bog oak, red cedar, yew, ash, English oak, elm burr. Other forum members have similar instruments.  
Peter |
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francis
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Post by francis on Dec 3, 2023 11:33:35 GMT
Bog Oak gets mentioned a lot but I would take it as a rare timber, hardly sustainable, once its gone its gone. At least with rosewoods new trees can be grown. I'm not sure burying oak trees in bogs and reclaiming them in 10K years makes them sustainable...
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colins
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Post by colins on Dec 3, 2023 12:18:45 GMT
Bog Oak gets mentioned a lot but I would take it as a rare timber, hardly sustainable, once its gone its jone. At least with rosewoods new trees can be grown. I'm not sure burying oak trees in bogs and reclaiming them in 10K years makes them sustainable... These old trees and stumps were being ploughed up by farmers in Norfolk and were just being dumped at the side of the field or burnt until Chris from Timberline started to buy them and process the wood into guitar parts. No they may not be sustainable but they are local and much better that they get used for a decent purpose rather than just left to rot once exposed to oxygen, or burnt. There is a long history of using buried ancient bog wood for both furniture and instruments across the whole of northern Europe. I have also built a guitar using Ancient Kauri wood from New Zealand, these buried logs are up to 50 thousand years old and 3-4m in diameter, I have even visited a museum in New Zealand devoted to them and their products, again, use them or waste them once exposed by farming. None of the tropical woods, apart from plantation grown EIR, are sustainable, which is why a number of us have been using re-cycled wood where possible for many years. |
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francis
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Post by francis on Dec 3, 2023 15:09:51 GMT
colins I agree with everything you've said. Better a resource like that is used rather than being destroyed. But sadly because of their history they are a finite resource. I also envy your experiences using more exotic materials, going well beyond my modest building to date. I can however also claim to be a user of reclaimed materials when possible.
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Post by borborygmus on Dec 4, 2023 12:36:27 GMT
Bog Oak gets mentioned a lot but I would take it as a rare timber, hardly sustainable, once its gone its gone. At least with rosewoods new trees can be grown. I'm not sure burying oak trees in bogs and reclaiming them in 10K years makes them sustainable... The question was "wood from a local or sustainable source", so bog oak Fenland black oak does qualify. I guess it could be sustainable in that it is rescued from destruction, and used instead of something cut down for the purpose and not replanted. I saw this table when it was in Ely Cathedral last year: www.thefenlandblackoakproject.co.uk/the-tablePeter |
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mandovark
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Post by mandovark on Dec 4, 2023 15:06:06 GMT
Bog Oak gets mentioned a lot but I would take it as a rare timber, hardly sustainable, once its gone its gone. At least with rosewoods new trees can be grown. I'm not sure burying oak trees in bogs and reclaiming them in 10K years makes them sustainable... I saw this table when it was in Ely Cathedral last year: www.thefenlandblackoakproject.co.uk/the-tablePeter I saw that table too. I did wonder if the cathedral had taken precautions against luthiers trying to sneak in with saws  |
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colins
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Post by colins on Dec 4, 2023 15:29:20 GMT
And here is a plank of Ancient Kauri. They had an enormous table in the museum made from a single plank. They also recover large chunks of fossilised resin, bit like amber, which they use for jewellery.  |
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Post by earwighoney on Dec 5, 2023 12:30:07 GMT
None of the tropical woods, apart from plantation grown EIR, are sustainable, which is why a number of us have been using re-cycled wood where possible for many years.
Mahogany (Honduran and Cuban) kind of is in India. I can't speak for the entire nature but I have family in West Bengal, India and those trees are incredibly common there, like the London Plane where I live in South London. They have been planted there as ornamental trees (also for timber too). One of my cousins has one (I think it's Cuban?) in his front garden.
Btw, this isn't in the rural or forests but in the suburbs.
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colins
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Post by colins on Dec 5, 2023 15:37:36 GMT
None of the tropical woods, apart from plantation grown EIR, are sustainable, which is why a number of us have been using re-cycled wood where possible for many years.
Mahogany (Honduran and Cuban) kind of is in India. I can't speak for the entire nature but I have family in West Bengal, India and those trees are incredibly common there, like the London Plane where I live in South London. They have been planted there as ornamental trees (also for timber too). One of my cousins has one (I think it's Cuban?) in his front garden.
Btw, this isn't in the rural or forests but in the suburbs.
Unfortunately they are not being grown as a sustainable commercial crop in the way that EIR is. The Indian government very carefully regulates the EIR resource, logs cannot be exported, only processed timber. As far as I am aware none of the mahogany is available for commercial use, Cities restrictions would apply. |
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Post by earwighoney on Dec 5, 2023 16:13:41 GMT
Unfortunately they are not being grown as a sustainable commercial crop in the way that EIR is. The Indian government very carefully regulates the EIR resource, logs cannot be exported, only processed timber. As far as I am aware none of the mahogany is available for commercial use, Cities restrictions would apply. Yes, it's not grown as a commercial crop for export, but it is available for commercial use for the domestic market at least.
I made a trip there in 2019 to see some family, and one day I passed a small lumber yard and there was some great quality mahogany timber, I presume most of it is used for furniture? At my aunt's house, the bed I slept in was made from some very nice Cuban, much denser than my the Honduran I see every day (I've got an old wardrobe made from it). It seemed a waste tbh of great Cuban tbh honest! That bed would have made some wonderful acoustic guitars! I asked a few people out there and they seemed to think mahogany is an inferior timber, with teak the most highly desired timber for furniture makers.
I wrote this in another thread, but in the suburb I was staying in, for the 10 minute walk between my aunt and cousin's house there were a lot of huge mahogany trees I'd pass. The trees grow really well in the humid conditions, and seem to be little bothered by the dust/pollution too.
Pretty much all the cut mahogany I came across seemed to be the Cuban variety, it had the characteristic flame of the set you posted. I presume the colonialists had taken seeds there to the port of Calcutta/Kolkata many years ago.
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Jo whoever he is.
