Official Luthiers Forum!

Does anyone in the group have any working knowledge of Persimmon Wood. I know it is a member of the Ebony family and they used to make golf club "Woods" out of the stuff, but has anyone worked with it. The stuff I have is from a rather large tree. I have four boards that are about 5 feed long by 8 inches and are cut just north and sout of the pith of the tree. so the outer part of the planks are quartered, but the part closest to the pith is at about a 45 degree angle. This log was laying around for a while because two of the boards have started to spalt. One board is almost too far gone. Some soft spots.

How do you dry the stuff. Does it degrade a lot during the drying process. Wet it can be used for a boat anchor. Is it really heavy when it is dry? Good for fingerboards? Good for backs and sides? Can it be dyed black?

Please give me some information.

thanks
Ken

Yes ,you can stain it black.Many piano keys have been done that way with it.It shrinks alot during drying.It is a heavy wood even after dry.Can be used for backs and sides even fretboards and bridges.Just sticker it and keep out of the sun to dry. Mark

If one board is not spalted, I would try resawing for guitar sets. You get the least degrade resawing green and then stickering the sets, but it probably wouldn't make too much different if you seal the ends with wax or anchorseal and air dry on stickers for some months before resawing.

If I had back sets as you describe, I would make them into four-piece backs to bring more of the quartersawn wood to the center and push the rift sawn to the edges.

_________________
Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I've built one guitar with persimon B&S, which came out well. It was definitely a 'street fighting' guitar that would put up with a lot of abuse, and it sounded fine. I use it for bridge plates, as it's the most difficult wood to split I've seen, right up there with Osage Orange, and persimmon has a tighter grain. It does make a good fingerboard; I like to dye it with a tea made from black walnut hulls so that it doesn't show the dirt as much.

The best way I've found to deal with drying wood is to cut it as small as you think you can get away with when it's green. The less curvature to the ring lines on the ends of the pieces the less drying degrade you'll get. Remove the bark, and then paint the ends of the pieces. I've found that a couple of coats of latex paint works well: you don't need to totally seal the ends, just to keep them from losing moisture faster than the side grain. Stack the wood loosely, in corsswise layers if you can, in a place that is out of the sun but gets good air circulation. Cover the top of the pile, but not the sides. Turn the pile over in a few weeks, to make sure there is no mildew or drying problems. This will get rid of about 95% of the moisture in six weeks or so.

Thanks for your suggestions. I have started cutting two boards up for back and sides. I know it will dry much faster when thinner. For the spalted boards, I have given two of them to a friend who makes Native American Style Flutes. He went nuts over the stuff. Said the spalting made the wood more interesting. Not sure I would want to put my lips against a piece of spalted wood, but who knows. Again. Thanks for the help

Ken