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So why don't we see more of these? Just an observation with Curly Redwood and other mega flamed wood that is available.

I only know of 2 or so vendors who sell curly or flamed sitka tops. Is there something about these I don't know? I have one in the wood pile, just waiting for the right guitar.....

Laurie

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Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Even though the ones I have are very old they seem to
very dense/heavy tops for the Sitka.
Compared to figured Lutz.
The redwood ones look great but are prone to be brittle
and not very good or vibrant .
just my 2 cents

Mike

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Mike Collins

is this what your looking for ?

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Yes.
That is nice, John.
Spill the beans

Although bearclaw is small ripples of curl essentially, I think he means something more like this ....

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

You don't see curly as often probably because it's more rare in nature. Also alot of luthiers would rather build with less runout and lighter for the top plates. There is always more chance for cracking in all figured wood that is under stress which a guitar is.

I used one seen here viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=25783

I bought a few different variety of curly spruce from Alaska Specialty Wood. This was their Caldera White and was the least stiff of the group. I was a little suspect of it, but used it anyway. Turned out alright and I probably went a tad thin on it for its stiffness. Probably should have used it on a small body.

I also have Curly Chrome which has a ridiculous tap and really nice figure, and a Curly Sitka which also has a great tap to it but not much figure. I'm excited to use those.

Tony - that is exactly what I was referring to - mine doesn't have that much flame, but I'm looking forward to working. I should brace it with a nice 3A Lutz just to have something to compare it to.

Glad to see they do exist....I'll post pics in 5-10 years when I use mine

Laurie

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Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

This is an excellent question! Nice photos, I hope to learn a lot here !!

John Hall, is that you holding that guitar? Whomever it is, he is the spitting image of my father. Beautiful guitar, by the way.

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

If you think about it, every one of those curls or flames is pure runout. I guess it makes sense why the top is less stiff.

Incidentally I went on vacation to the Smoky Mountains one April, burned a log wedge in the fireplace that was super curly pine of some sort. being a fairly large split billet as it was, I bet it would have made some awesome looking tops.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

BTW .. the top I used was fairly stiff .... better than some straight grain ones I have used ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I have found most figured wood is more dense and stiff that unfigured wood .

I have other sitka like the one above and its all pretty stiff .. I cant say the same for some curly redwood though ... its like floppy plastic. the straight grain stuff is a lot stiffer ..

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

What do y'all think of my burning a curly spruce billet in the fireplace?

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Old growth, shmold growth!

John that is single most absolutly stunning spruce ive ever seen
id be intrested to find out how and where a tree would have figure like that
beautiful

Bearclaw is not curl at all. It isn't runout. It's a radial jog in the annular rings.

IMO using curly wood for tops is a mistake due to structural weakness and poorer vibration transmission. Bearclaw does not have those issues.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

In a way, I look at bearclaw as localized pockets and veins of runout. But it is far from posing any structural problem. The only application where I would maybe reject the stuff is in small classical fan braces.
The veins tend to travel diagonally across the face and side grain planes, that is why the face figure constantly changes during thicknessing.

Here is a split side face of euro spruce showing the BC veins.

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