Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Well, I guess I can answer my own question about bending the Kauri. After it was thinned to 1.8mm, it could almost be bent dry. Very rubbery. I just did the usual. Put the bender timer on 12 minutes and the temp controller at 320 degrees. Bent easy and came out very smooth. However, when I trimmed t...

I have some swamp Kauri for the back and sides of a uke and some modern Kauri for the top. Never worked with this wood. The swamp Kauri is pretty stiff. Does it bend O.K. with the usual procedures? Typically I would bend uke wood at about 1.7-1.8mm thick in a Fox style bender. Hope you all have the ...

Mark, No, most of my jigs are miserable looking things made out of cobbled up parts. My usual technique is make it as fast as I can, just so it works. Only occasionally do I make them nice. I put those clamps again on the end of a short video I made as a follow up to a Zoom session with a couple of ...

DSC_0088.jpeg Rod- Pretty easy to make. All you need to have is the press screw. Thay are not expensive in the U.S. anyway, The rest is just a little plywood and a couple of hours time. Today I was using a little brother to make a bigger brother. Could have used my vacuum bag, but got lazy and just...

Recently a friend sent me a link to a New York Times article on the Martin factory. It had a series of photos and 1 of them showed a dovetail being clamped. There are not many folks doing dovetails anymore, but I continue to do what I have always done. A good sturdy clamp for the dovetail has always...

That looks like the modern Kauri I have. Some of the Swamp Kauri I have seen photos of have what is called a "whitebait" or "curly" look and it was pretty spectacular. That's what I'd like to try to find to combine with my very plain modern Kauri. One of many projects that may never happen! I spent ...

A curly koa uke set can be $300.00+ these days, so the cost of all nice wood is going through the roof. I have sold koa sets, or used to anyway, for almost 40 years and can remember when nice curly guitar sets were $50.00-$75.00. When I first started cutting koa from left over logging stumps, I was ...

I build a few ukes in Hawaii. I was recently gifted some modern Kauri wood. I was planning on using it as a top on a koa tenor uke, but I have read some things about using it with Ancient Kauri B/S. Kind of spiked my curiosity. I have looked a bit for some Ancient Kauri, but for good reason it is no...

I ordered 1 of the 16" radius bits from Steve Evans (No relation to Steve Evans from Beltona Instruments whom Anne and I stayed with when he lived in NZ). I have no problem with what I thought to be a reasonable announcement of the tool on this forum, as well as a generous offer of bits to try. As a...

Wayde-Very nice detailed write-up. You spent some major time on that and it should be very useful to any builder who is thinking about taking a class. Especially nice to see your honesty in regards to things you had problems with. I've taken and presented lots of lutherie classes over the last 40 ye...

I bring in small quantities of shell from Australia for resale to local builders here in Hawaii. Here's the way import goes in the U.S. for commercial purposes. I am required to have a U.S. Fish & Wildlife permit, which costs $100.00/yr. Each shipment I bring in, whether it is worth $1.00 or $1,000....

Grover #4's are a knockoff of the Gotoh and they come in chrome, nickel, or gold with black, white, pearloid, or grained ivoroid buttons. The ivoroid or pearloid buttons cost more. This particular friction peg works very well on soprano and concert ukes. A few people I know use them on tenors, but I...

Looks like the replies have dwindled, so I guess there are not many builders on the South island. I expected that. So, on to other important stuff. What kind of beer might we find on tap that's worth trying when we are escaping the rain? We like the darker, thicker, kinds.

No golf for me. I'm a tennis player. One of my friends, who makes clubs and has been playing for 60 years, advised me some years ago to never pick up a club. Says he wasted way too much of his life on the course. He's still doing it, and still gives the same advice. It's an adiction I believe. The w...

Like Rick, I'm not a big fan of soundboard transducers either, but they are powerful and cheap, and that makes them fit the budget for many folks. In ukes, they don't work quite like in guitars. In general, they are just too hot for many ukes. They definitely don't want to be out in the middle of th...

Paul, We had a similar problem with our "plastic" on a trip to Spain a few years ago. Nobody there offered us $ or much help. New Zealand gets very high marks from anyone who has traveled there and that's part of the reason we are choosing it. Looking forward to a New Zealand adventure.-Bob

I'm afraid Australia will have to be on another trip. Hopefully we will be able to do that in the future. Thanks for the offers.-Bob

Thanks for the replies. By the way, there is no "usual luthier's workshop". I've seen evrything from closets in a bedroom to plastic tarps outside in the rain. Everything has it's place. It's always interesting to see how builder's cope. Hopefully I'll get to meet some of you. Thanks for the tips so...

My wife and I will be traveling on the South Island for 3-4 weeks in January-Feb. 2010. Just wondering if there are any stringed instrument makers there. We like to visit makers who are open to it when we travel. Any kind of stringed instruments. All luthiers, at any skill level, are interesting to ...

I was trying to follow along on this thread to see if I could learn something about woods in NZ. You guys digress a wee bit! My wife and I will be traveling on the South Island for 3-4 weeks in early 10 and it would be great to look for some of these trees that you are talking about. Always fun to s...

Allen- Sorry I did not follow through on the post. Over the last few weeks I've only had a few hours when my connectivity worked. I'm working on it. I'll be back! Thanks, Bob G.

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Having never posted in your forum, I'll see if I have figured out how to post an image and then do another post if it works. If it doesn't, oh well!