Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

All the best with move Rob .

If you need anywhere to park the odd wadkin for a year or twenty I'd happily help !

Pete

I entirely agree that black bean seems an odd choice . The open pore structure combined with a low janka seems risky to me . I prepared a list a ways back of suitable native species for fingerboards based on the technical data , castanospermum australae didn't make the list . That much said , I'm on...

This ones going out for you Kim . The high bay lights aren't to flattering but it gives an idea . It's a steam bent skeleton that gets clad with a nylon canvas skin . When done it's semi transparent ( you can see the waterline when sitting in it ) and about 7 kilos . I have to admit that's its a who...

It's a funny thing the whole fingerboard influence on tone . I can't claim any great knowledge of the topic as a maker . As I supplier I get a bit of a different perspective which probably just verifies how subjective makers opinion of the tone of their instruments is . I supply gidgee and other hig...

Rightio , strictly speaking it's not the goings on of my workbench but maybe of interest . My workbench is occupied with a tidy little Huon and King Billy boat I'm building , getting ready to start teaching boat building again . It's logging season in curly world , some banging good blackwood coming...

I'd say brigalow , despite the heartwood being pretty dark . That's wider sapwood than any gidgee I've ever bought in . Gidgee does occasionally grow alongside brigalow though generally brigalow is on wetter , more fertile ground , gidgee is further west . What's the weight cube out to , gidg is sig...

Agreed , my first impression would be nz kauri . Too dark for qld kauri . The ' salt and pepper ' ray cells are right on . Maybe the late wood bands look a little heavy . The timbers of Agathis and Araucarias are mostly very similar . Hoop and even bunya can look very similar though the real honey g...

Southern Silver Ash , Flindersia schottiana is increasingly hard to come by . It is definitely the superior species for strength to weight , along with bend ability . Many merchants are swapping out other blonde Flindersias from nth Qld , PNG and beyond . The stuff I have handled from PNG was coarse...

From memory one of the greatest virtues of paulownia is dimensional stability . I'd also add timber ethics . If paulownia can produce soundboards in under 20 years and spruce takes 400 , King Billy takes 1000 , sustainability has to come into play . I'd love to see one of the big manufacturers launc...

I'll be through the show for a couple of hours from about 11 . For those I haven't met I'm in a red check shirt and will have a 3 yr old in tow ! Be good to add a few more faces to names .
Pete

Uncle Google suggests pva as the release agent over wax . One suggestion was hairspray over wax . All else fails I'd have a mean quiff !
Pete

It looks like wax is the go . It has its own risks though . Liquid epoxy is a shit for running out of the stack , it wouldn't take much surface area missed to have an unretrievable component butchered to save the form . I will look into what's used in fibreglass molds , it would definitely be the cl...

Thanks for those prompts . I'm sort of hoping for something like a paint or permanent release agent that I can apply and then the jobs done . Maybe wishful thinking ...
Pete

I'm wondering what people coat their molds / forms/ cauls in when laminating so that the glue doesn't stick . Primarily I'm using epoxy but while I'm being messy it could just as well be polyurethane ( this particular job is a canoe keel , though it'd apply equally for laminate sides ). I'm thinking...

I would think that kerfing would be one of the less exacting timbers in the build . Ideally though it's about bend ability ( obviously ) , which links in to long fibres. But then I'd add the species not being too fissile ( easy split along the grain ) as that would help the timber between the kerf f...

I can't speak as to the North American experience . Certainly with like species here a certain amount of logs just sank along with the jammers . I did a bit of work pulling Huon from the Stanley river , a tributary to the Pieman . Some logs had to be pried free . Others were just sitting there on th...

Gorgeous work Trevor ,
Man what an honour to see a work of that calibre made from my timber . And we'll done taming that gidg , that was some cranky timber !
Pete

My question would be why did the tree sink in the first place . Higher than average moisture content and - or higher density would have to be the answer . Aside from the effects of submersion the inherent characteristics of the logs that sank would likely be different .
Pete

If it were natural then Fir ( pseudotsuga menseisii ) would produce the right proportion of early / late wood bands that the instrument shows . And they certainly do get big . It's the consistently rift sawn thing that's got me . Sawmillers , speciality or otherwise don't rift saw by preference . A ...

If you look at the timber in the back with a mind as to what would need to be going on in the tree it's pretty well impossible that it is not constructed . Across the entire width of the back the pattern is consistently rift . At no point does it roll either to quarter or flat sawn . It's a single p...

I couldn't say species but what I'm seeing is a man made veneer . The process by which it is made is pressing a stack of variously coloured veneers into a corrugated form and then rift slicing the flitch . A similar effect can be gotten by flat sawing timbers with a pronounced growth ring when the l...

Yeah ditto ,
Hoop or kauri are most likely .
Pete

That was some nice cooba . It was stuff that I supplied to Chris , sourced from a fallen tree between Deniliquin and Moulmein . That was one of a few sets I'd chased out flat sawn for a different figure . Given that cooba is so stable it seems to have been a safe decision . Lovely work , you have to...

Early days juvenile Aus red cedars were cut as a replacement for Spanish cedar , it'd take a finer eye than mine to spot the differences( before the Aus cedar has coloured up , maybe max 400 dia ) . As a tree they are also remarkably similar looking . I haven't looked into it but expect genetics wou...

I can't add anything useful as to the build process . What I would say though is that when you are chasing that sort of fine , nuanced improvements in sound , pay close attention to your timber . Wood is not just wood . Some is better . Same species , quartered properly can vary hugely . I haven't h...