Official Luthiers Forum!

Has anyone on the forum ever built a guitar with Red River Gum for the backs and sides. Let's hear from all you Aussies.

Ken

There's a couple guys down in Florida who have... I saw a couple pix somewhere.. Forgot where.. but they were beautiful!

Thanks

Too unstable for me . I have a large slab of it which is perfectly quartered but I don't think it would behave well enough to use. I have had it for around 10 yrs now and it still develops hair line cracks over both faces even though it was sealed with polyurethane to protect it. So if anyone has figured out a way to stabilise it, I would really like to know as I would love to build a guitar with it.

Likewise so, too unstable for me. However, is beautiful wood that can have some wild figure. I had a beautifully figured quarter sawn piece that I ended up selling to a furniture maker because of surface cracks and twisting.

Thanks for your comments. I have one quartered slab of this wood that I am going to attempt to dry (partially dry now). Do you recommend I resaw it now or let it continue to dry in cant form. Here is a ukulele made from the same wood from the same tree. The cant I have has this same figure.

Ken

I've only used red gum and other gums for rustic furniture and carpentry. It' very prone to checking.

Gums used to be used to shore up mining tunnels, very strong till it fails with no warning. The miners switched to Oregon (doug fir) because it would creak and groan long before failure.

Every bit of timber framing in my house is spotted gum.

_________________
Regards from RangeView, Bill

Hi OLF and Ken,
My first post.

I have not built a guitar from it yet but do intend to once I get a few more builds under my belt. I am a believer in it. I was thinking of laminating it when I do get around to a build with it.

18 years back I used it in my workbench [ pictured ], in the screws for the vices. and for the knobs,the rest of the bench is Jarrah. I also have a cabriole leg that I did years back,the leg Knobs and bench screws came from old weathered posts. it has not moved at all.The old post had surface checks to a depth of one inch maybe? but was good inside.

About twenty years back the furniture trade here started to use it ,I believe this happened at the same time every one started to use the wide belt sander. I then started to see it in the timber yards dry and ready for cabinet use, never in the wide sizes that the tree could be seen though.

I dont know about drying it , I can ask a timber rep next time I see him, if he knows,
I will pass on any good info Ken if I can get it.
I have seen it sawn in to sleepers and it is checked and cracked all over the place , and then I have come across it in large sizes, and its perfect. It grows all around here and plenty of it has strong figure like your top, I see a lot of straight grained timber like I used in my screws ,reminds me of the early dense Mahogany used in furniture from the 1740 to 1780S, similar weight to feel a bit more opened grain though.

I like your build, it looks great. I got a shock to see it in a top when I scrolled down to your picture, I was expecting back and sides. How does it sound ?

Regards Rob Brown.

Rob, Thanks for your input. Let me know if you find out about drying it from your wood supplier. The ukulele is not mine. It was made by the person who sold me the wood. It is the top, back and sides. Also, your workbench is WOW!!! Glad to see you on the forum.

Ken

Hi Rob, what an astounding workbench ! Wow !

_________________
Regards from RangeView, Bill

Hello, I don`t know if this is red gum, I was told it is globulus, but I am not an expert in Eucalyptus, also I think these sets contain several species, but I don't know. I would like to learn more about these Eucalyptus trees, but here in germany it is not easy to find someone who is specialized in it.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1157931855 ... ptusRiegel

Best regards, Alex

p.s. regarding the topic, no, haven't built with it yet, only resawing, but mine seems to be very stable, no cracks appearing so far

Ken,
I'm not sure when I will see the rep,he chooses when to drop in,and the info he gives me will probably be regarding his company's kiln. I am interested to know what he says though.And will pass it on.

I did ask the question on a forum we have down this side of the planet and had two answers.
this may suit what you need to know.

http://www.woodworkforums.com/f132/dryi ... um-146940/

Rob

I've got lots of large pieces of it that I too built a bench with. The pieces I have are stable, and have not checked or cracked, but they are all bench sized pieces. The bits I have sliced down into instrument thin veneers moved about on me way too much for my liking. It sure wouldn't be my first choice of a wood to build with.

_________________
Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

Geez Rob! What kind of bench is that?? Do you serve beer!
Man! Nice looking!

Good to see you on the forum!

_________________
Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Alex, Not sure what kind of eucalyptus you have. Looks great!! I believe the dark ones at the bottom of your attachment have been fumed.

Ken

Thanks for all the bench comments.

Billy, I made it for doing traditional cabinet work on, Inspired by the workbench book by Scott Landis, All Aussie timbers , French polished. It rarely looks this clean or shinny , I cleaned it up for those pictures that were going on my web site.
It has developed a nice patina, every once in a while I give it a cut back with fine paper and oil and turps ,then give it a shine up with a light FP with a flick of linseed oil.
Cold Beer slides well on the top after a polish job, I have a suspicion that all those bar tenders in the movies must have also known how to FP.

Alex,
I cant see Red gum in your pictures, so many of the light colored eucalyptus look similar though, I do have a friend with a box of samples that were put out by a government department here, I will try and take a picture and show you, from memory all are plain grained samples.

Rob