Questions: Recycled/Reclaimed Wood

by Dave Maize

Originally published in American Lutherie #62, 2000 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013



Jason Rodgers of Portland, Oregon asks:

Over the past couple of years, guitar lutherie has become an intense interest of mine. I’d like to find out about recycled/reclaimed wood. If wood is our medium, we’ve got to take care of it. Besides the whole sustainability argument, I think there is a quality aspect to recycled woods, as well. In many cases, you can find large dimensions, and they’re well seasoned, because they’ve been air dried as a ceiling beam for the last 50–100 years.

When I open my shop in a few years I’m going to be wanting recycled wood that I can use to build some nice archtop guitars. Do you know of any companies who deal with recycled wood in our local Northwest (or anywhere else)? Being a prime region for both spruce and maple I would expect there to be some available the second time around.