Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi every one!

Few weeks ago, I went with many of other luthier students to a hardwood distributor. They opened the shop for us and let us see and chose our lumbers. Great guys. So we found 16/4 Spanish Cedar, 4/4 Quartersawn Peruvian Walnut (some board were more than 11inches large, and PERFECTLY on quarter on almost all his width!), 16/4 Honduran Mahogany. They were a lot of other interesting woods, figured sycamore, QS macassar ebony, etc,etc,etc... but they're the 3 of wich we bought some.

We resawed it this week, and here are the results:
first, almost nothing of waste!

-55 SC necks (about 10 bit too off quarter for guitar, will be used for ukes. the rest is real good on quarter. only 2 necks are wasted (sapwood)) + heel and end blocks
-14 peruvian walnut guitar back and sides sets. Some large enough for a jumbo acoustic bass!
-18 honduran mahogany necks, QS, + heel and end blocks

And the final price / piece:
-about 10$ for a SC neck
-less than 25$ for a walnut set
-about 15$ for a honduran neck

and ALL the stuff is really beautiful. So, we had such great deals!


Just wanted to share it with you!

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Wow, sounds like you got a great deal and had fun in the process. Hondo may become unavailable in the foreseeable future- who knows?- I would buy all you can afford and stash it away, like money in the bank.......

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It's not the miles ahead, it's the stone in your shoe


In Markham,Virginia

It is nice that you could get Spanish cedar. I do not have any source for that species locally and it is a drag. Congrats!

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http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210

I was lucky that I was around sawmills before I got into guitars. It is a great education to go to a mill and see how wood is cut from the log. Most sawyers are happy to show you the ropes . I live in an area where local mills are common and I have 3 within 40 miles of me. Local wood in penna that is luthier friendly are Maple , Osage , Black locust . sycamore ,Walnut and Cherry along with burls that can be resawn for rosettes. Most mills now even have kilns which is another study in itself.
If any one of you get a chance to go to a real mill and you can see them in operation , it is fascinating . Just think at the way it was done in olden days when wood was cut by men in a pit , then water powered mills evolved . The saw evolved from the 2 man to the sash saw and then the circular and band mills. I was watching Modern Marvels and it was showing the western mills and how they handled the large redwoods.

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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

Good for you!

And who was this hardwood distributor?

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

John I saw that show on Modern Marvels also.
As an old Machine head I always try to check that stuff out.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Nagam! In Ville-Saint-Laurent.

There is still a good bunch of Peruvian Walnut Quartsawn, very large lumber, if you want some, you should go!

I think we took the last good blanks of spanish cedar, it was old stock (now disponibility is getting lower).

And they have a large choice of (cheap) veneers.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Thanks for the info Ti-Roux.

I just learned about Nagam last month. I thought they only supplied veneers. Good to know they also have lumber! I'll go take a look at what they have to offer.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

They have almost what you could want. Maybe not Brazalian and Mad Rose but, they have a lot of stuff. And guys are really nice.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars