Official Luthiers Forum!

hello, i was reading around old threads. and found out that this wood (Maclura pomifera) with good sounding properties is somewhat closely related to the one we have here in Argentina (Maclura tinctoria) that you call Argentine Osage Orange.
is this last one the same in tone qualities compared to the maclura pomifera?

this wood is quite cheap and sometimes disliked by carpenters for being hard to work with.
but if it is what you guys say it is im most willing to buy some and try a few guitars with it.

thanks !
Bruno

One of my students made a guitar of 'Fustic', AKA 'Argentine Osage Orange', and as far as I could tell, they're pretty much interchangable. Go for it.

thanks Alan!
ill get on to find some quarter sawn "Fustic" around and try it out.

I have a fair sized amt of osage , and getting more from a mill in 3 weeks , Have also used it for fingerboards and bridges on ukes. I don/t know if locust grows in argentina, but we have 2 kinds here in usa that can also be used. Try it and see, has abt the same density as BRW. Where I live in KC it has a tendency to warp when drying , so would wait till wood was bone dry to cut, and then it is extremely hard.

And when you find some nice looking quartersawn stock......let me know! <smile>

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

I have used M pomifera but if its too green and dried too fast it can crack across the grain. It makes a fine instrument though I prefer the US variety over the Argentine wood for workability.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

I've used both the Argentine variety and the US Osage Orange. They are about the same in workability--it's easy to chip when routing the binding ledges. Wiggles in the grain make it hard to plane the back joint in both woods. And, they are so close in sound I can't really tell them apart. One of the best sounding guitars I have ever built was with Fustic (the Argentine variety) but many of of the US OO guitars I have built are very close. Fustic seems to have become unobtanium here in the US. If anyone has a source, I'd love to know.

--Bob

Bob . I have had chipping an tearing on osage particularly when using my LN low angle block plane , so I resaw as close as possible on bandsaw and go through the sanding grits, Have you tried 1/8 IN. carbide down cut end mills , to reduce chipping on osage??

thats pretty much what i wanted to know.
you know, as a carpenter i have made lots of windows/door frames out of this wood. here, its considered mediocre among hard woods. i think mostly because of the interlocked grain which makes it hard to work with.
i had a pretty good seasoned stock a while back. but its been used up for frames.
i never would have thought of using it for guitars either, for the same reasons. and i never imagined it was exported.
but now im gonna pay a visit to the local wood stores and see if i can spot some.

thanks guys!

I haven't tried the end mills. I mostly cope by having very sharp tools and taking very small cuts. I may try the end mill the next time I buy bits.

Bob carbide end mills come in 1/4in or 1/8in shanks for use in laminate trimmers,Cheapies (routers) have too much play in the cut, stick with quality. If using 1/8in shank you will need an adaptor for the 1/4 in collets on most routers. Lots of vendors on the internet.