NWD: New Wood Day

[courtney2018]

Last week I came home to 77 pounds worth of wood sitting at my front door. If it were food it would've look delicious!

Here's a few shots of the wood that I got. I actually bought more than I have pictured here. What's not pictured is a few boards of flamed maple, purple heart and african mahogany. I should've included the african mahogany in the pics below, but had a brain fart. It's a brilliant brown. If you thought that brown was boring, this wood will change your mind. It almost has a sort of flame or figured look to it. It's a rich chocolate brown with golden highlight lines running thru it. It's just been rough planed before it was sent to me and it reflects the sunlight like a mirror almost. I can't wait to make a body out of it. It's going to look phenomenal!

In the pics below there is leopard wood, figured eucalyptus, satin wood (yellow), blood wood (red) and mahogany santos. Leopard wood pretty much speaks for itself. It looks like a leopard skin. I'll be using this soley to make a guitar body out of. Beautiful!

The figured eucalyptus was kinda expensive, but I wanted to try it out. I don't think I've ever seen a guitar that had this in it. It will look interesting if nothing else. I do believe that it is used in musical instruments, just not an everyday wood that you see for guitars.

The satin wood is unbelieveable. It's yellow. It looks like a piece of pine that's been stained yellow. It's actually a dense, exotic hard wood. Actually, all of the woods pictured below are exotic.

Next is blood wood. This one also speaks for itself. It's very red! It's also very dense.

Then there's mahogany santos. In the pic it looks kinda brownish, but once you expose fresh wood it actually has a slight pinkish color. I've never seen this in person and wanted to get some to make a body out of. It's used in musical instruments, just not the everyday guitar that were used to seeing.


Group shot:


Leopard wood:


Figured eucalyptus:


Satin wood:


Blood wood:


Mahogany santos:

[elcid]

I know you named the thread just so I could make this joke.

Ahem.....

Courtney, you give me new wood



Thank you. Remember to tip your waitress.

[courtney2018]

Aaaaahhh, I knew that this would probably get your attention. LOL Glad I could give you new wood!

[MrKenSebben]

The eucalyptus would look really neat on guitar. How is it? It looks kinda brittle.

[courtney2018]

No, not at all. It's pretty hard. It's about the same hardness as American Cherry and Genuine Mahogany (from Latin America), which is about twice as hard as Alder.

The kicker is that figured eucalyptus can be a bugger to plane, but that's true with nearly all figured woods. Otherwise it's pretty easy to machine and easy on the tools.

[LuredMaul]

that figured eucalyptus looks like a grain filling nightmare albeit very cool.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by courtney2018

The kicker is that figured eucalyptus can be a bugger to plane, but that's true with nearly all figured woods. Otherwise it's pretty easy to machine and easy on the tools.

curved plane blades or scrapers, very very sharp

[courtney2018]

Originally Posted by Jaden

curved plane blades or scrapers, very very sharp

Absolutely right. So have you used figured eucalyptus before on a guitar? I'd be really interested in seeing it.

[UV-7-BK]

I dont think ive ever seen a guitar made with eucalyptus... here in Australia, ever second tree is a bloody eucalypt!!! Bastards soak up all the water in the ground starving all the other plants around it!!! *shakes fist at tree*

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by courtney2018

Absolutely right. So have you used figured eucalyptus before on a guitar? I'd be really interested in seeing it.

no, never..
I tend to use a fair bit of figured maple and walnut, the flames and quilts need some TLC !

[Takin' a Ride]

Say Jaden I was browsing through your website yesterday and have a technical question for you. I noticed on your figured top bodies that you're basically using a very thick block of the figured wood and then machining the curve in the body by your elbow out of that. On the genuine Ibanez bodies, they're using a uniform thickness top that follows the contour of the body.

Is there a reason you use one method over the other? I imagine it can't be easy to laminate a curved section of wood? I imagine you'd have to steam it first to get it flexible enough to do that?

[LonePhantom]

Eucalyptus is extremely hard. So hard in fact that when the British came to Australia their saws, etc were way too soft to cut the trees.

Hmm could be interesting, making a body from it, probably heavy though.

[prydogga]

Originally Posted by UV-7-BK

I dont think ive ever seen a guitar made with eucalyptus... here in Australia, ever second tree is a bloody eucalypt!!! Bastards soak up all the water in the ground starving all the other plants around it!!! *shakes fist at tree*

Every second tree? If I look out the window right at this moment the eucalyptus to other tree ratio is like 3:1. They're everywhere!

[prydogga]

Originally Posted by elcid

I know you named the thread just so I could make this joke.

Ahem.....

Courtney, you give me new wood



Thank you. Remember to tip your waitress.

Ah damn it the joke's taken! I had a "That's what she said" type joke ready! Damn...

[UV-7-BK]

Originally Posted by prydogga

Every second tree? If I look out the window right at this moment the eucalyptus to other tree ratio is like 3:1. They're everywhere!

Either way dude, that ratio means one thing...plenty of guitars!!