Official Luthiers Forum!

Is this ever used in luthiery?
I have the chance to buy some

Birch has a reputation of not being particularly stable. It is also fairly hard and heavy. I used it for making some cam clamps, but I think there are better woods for guitar making.

Birch was used in many of the less expensive ladder braced guitars of 20's 30's 40's and into the 50's, such as Stella.

According to Gruhn, it was also used in all the Lloyd Loar signed L5 guitars... Maple was introduced in 1925. Birch appears in more successful mandolins than any other hardwood, and was used extensively in many (most?) of Gibson's instuments until 20-30's. Check out an old thread over on Mandolin cafe called "Birch as a Tonewood" for more on this. Here's what I said in that thread (the mando is still not done ):

I'm making an A style mandolin out of local birch now. Birch is by far the most common hardwood up here, but I have a feeling it is a bit different than the variety you have over on your side. It is quite a bit softer and lighter than maple, carves easily, and it does not tear out much at all. The figure looks similar though; usually sort of a large curl, sometimes a bit tighter but still a bit different from maple.

At any rate, it has been used in many of our traditional instruments (Hardanger fiddle, langeleik etc.) over the years, so I see no reason why it should not work well in a mandolin.

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Stev,

I say go for it!! I have sold a few sets of birch and have reports of great success with it. And I agree with Arnt, the paper birch I source is lighter than maple and easier to work. I just shipped a back, side and top set to a customer who wants to build an all birch guitar. I am looking forward to his report once it is done.

Shane

_________________
Canada

yes!

I've built several dreads with it, and it's excellent. Back, sides, neck, all birch (from Alberta, Canada), with Sitka tops.

yes!

I've built several dreads with it, and it's excellent. Back, sides, neck, all birch (from Alberta, Canada), with Sitka tops.

I have a garrison acoustic that has birch backs and sides. It's not necessarily pretty but it is very stable in my opinion. It sounds quite good to. Don't believe the myths about it not being stable. They build boats with this and used to build airplanes with the stuff. If it wasn't stable would many of us use it for building molds and forms?

In the UK I most often saw it as furniture wood mainly chairs in fact, and it looks a bit different to the pics above...less pretty more uniform