Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Built in 2017 for a family member.

That looks like a lovely guitar, great work, well done!

So now I understand why it is called Qld walnut - it looks just like walnut, which is one of my favourite guitar timbers. That instrument looks great! How is it to work with? It is nice to see indigenous timbers pairing up so well.

Queensland walnut is simple, and bends nice and easy, pretty decent taptone, but not as good as rosewood. Has a nice ribbon effect, grain changes colour when viewed from different angles.

Very nice! Think I will look out for some QLD walnut

Hi. What method did you use to bend the sides. I have tried a couple of sets with no luck

That does not surprise me. I have used it a bit in mandolins and some Qld Walnut is almost impossible to bend without breaking. Can be extremely frustrating. Other pieces bend easily, so it is highly variable in terms of how it bends. I ended up picking a piece that bent easily and cut the entire piece into mandolin sides and have been using those for sides when I occasionally use Qld Walnut. Still have some left.

A quick comment about working with Queensland Walnut;

I've made a classical and parlour guitar, and a ukulele, using this wood. It has a pleasing - if not somewhat bland - grain and appearance, and finishes very well. It's clearly a good choice as a tone-wood. I've not had a problem bending it.

The biggest issue both from my experience, and having been told this by people who've cut it for me (I don't have a big enough band-saw to cut slices for backs and sides) is that the wood is infused with silica, and that it very quickly blunts band-saw and other blades - so much so that they've refused too cut any more for me! Indeed, when working with the wood, and in trying to plane it, it has quickly blunted the blades.

I don't know whether this matter of incorporation of silica is a characteristic of the species, whether this only occurs if the trees grow in particularly silicaceous soils or indeed , whether this was just a set of boards from a particular tree, that I'd bought from Mathews Timbers. Certainly, the people who cut it for me had experienced this issue before, and were wary of it.

Frank.

A quick addition to my post with regard to Queensland Walnut:

Here's a picture of the parlour guitar I mentioned I'd made. It's not quite illustrating the visual properties of the wood - I can't seem to find a photograph that I might have taken, better showing the back and sides - but you can sort-of see the colour and appearance.

Frank.

Silica in Queensland Walnut is normal, happens in every piece. It is a pain to cut because it wrecks bandsaw blades in no time. I usually use a blade that is already on the way out because it will be well blunt by the time I finish. The smell is also quite strong when you cut it, and some people (e.g. my other half) can't stand the smell. It smells a bit like rotting flesh. I got used to the smell so it does not bother me. I mostly stopped using it because of the silica problem, but it is quite a nice tonewood. I still have quite a few pieces left and occasionally still use it. If I was to make a guitar with it I would get someone else resaw it! Mandolin sizes are bad enough.

merandgra@gmail.com wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 30, 2020 4:14 pm

Hi. What method did you use to bend the sides. I have tried a couple of sets with no luck

on a Chinese ebay purchased heating bender, no water, just wood straight on it, bent really easy on the 2 guitars I built with it. didn't have any problem with silica like others say, but mine were quite thin well quartered sets from Curly timbers, so didn't need to much thicknessing or cutting.

kpcart wrote: ↑

Thu May 07, 2020 10:32 pm

on a Chinese ebay purchased heating bender,

Hi - do you have a link to the seller? I have been looking at these - you're happy with it?

Bob_H wrote: ↑

Tue May 12, 2020 5:25 pm

kpcart wrote: ↑

Thu May 07, 2020 10:32 pm

on a Chinese ebay purchased heating bender,

Hi - do you have a link to the seller? I have been looking at these - you're happy with it?

no I bought it on ebay from china, there are heaps of bending irons on there, I think mine was sold as a violin one but works for guitar sides too, as the iron is big enough. I bought plug adaptor for $5 too to connect to Australian power socket. they are about $100 if I remember