Posted on August 11, 2021March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Alternative Lutherie Woods List Alternative Lutherie Woods List by Nicholas Von Robison Originally published in American Lutherie #35, 1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 Western larch. Larix occidentalis. Western tamarack, hackmatack. Western U.S. and Canada. 37 lbs/ft³; S.G. 0.59. Heartwood pale red-brown with clearly marked growth rings. Straight grained with fine, uniform texture. Low stiffness, low shock resistance, and only medium bending strength. Very poor steam-bending classification. Dries fairly rapidly with tendency to distort. Kiln dries well but produces softer wood. Small movement in service. Very easily worked but knotty material is a problem. Difficult to harvest, moderate price, limited supply. Finishes well. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Jatoba Jatoba by Nicholas Von Robison and Debbie Suran Originally published in American Lutherie #36, 1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 Nick: Deb, you just recently completed your 100th instrument. That’s great! Why did you choose jatoba? Debbie: I wanted to do something special for my 100th instrument. There were times when I was starting out when I thought I’d never live long enough to get into double digits! I decided to build a hammered dulcimer (my 95th) entirely from salvaged woods. I called on friends from CompuServe’s crafts forum’s woodworking section for help, and they sent me maple flooring from an old gym for the pin blocks, birch door casings from a 1913 old-folks’ home for bracing, and the redwood bottom of a wine cask from a 19th-century California monastery for the soundboard. You can still smell the wine on a damp day! Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any salvaged wood nice enough for the exterior frame and bridges for the instrument, so I decided instead to use a lesser known species of wood. In 1986 I bought some tropical woods from a couple who had lived in Brazil for several years and who were augmenting the cash income from their homestead by importing Brazilian woods that were being harvested in an ecologically sound manner. They wanted a hammered dulcimer and I wanted some wood, so we swapped. Greg had a number of woods available that I’d never seen or heard of before and was quite insistent that I give these a try. He was persuasive, so I took some Amazon rosewood (Dalbergia spruceana), one piece of macacaúba (Platimiscium ulei), and a piece of jatoba (Hymenea courbaril). Both jatoba and macacaúba qualified as lesser-known species in those days; the jatoba had more character so that made the decision. A rather roundabout way to be introduced to a new wood. How did you first stumble onto jatoba? Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Wood Bibliography Wood Bibliography by Nicholas Von Robison Originally published ?, 1994 and Lutherie Woods and Steel String Guitars, 1998 The literature covering trees, wood, and wood technology goes back many years. Unfortunately, much of the information one desires on a certain wood or species is scattered about in the form of articles or abstracts in obscure scientific or trade journals. What follows is an annotated listing of the major works from which gleanings in the notes or bibliographies of these will enable one to delve into the literature more fully. Many, possibly most, of these books may suffice in answering any questions one may initially have. Many are out-of-print (OOP); many are unique and have no current replacement. They may be found in libraries, used book stores, or by having a search done by a specialist bookseller. Prices change frequently so the following categories are used for those books currently in print: inexpensive (up to $10), moderate ($10–$25), expensive ($25–$50), very expensive ($50+). This list is not exhaustive, but I believe it to be fairly comprehensive and it will aid anyone who wants or needs to learn more about woods or the trees they come from. Finding some of these books is very difficult but half the fun of it. Nomenclature Bailey, L. H. and Bailey, Ethel Zoe Hortus Second. New York, NY: Macmillan Co., 17th printing 1972. A concise dictionary of gardening, general horticulture, and cultivated plants in North America. While this 800-or-so page book covers plants other than trees, it’s a useful reference for spelling, checking families, and looking up archaic plant names. Hortus 3rd now out. Very expensive. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021March 6, 2024 by Dale Phillips Sealing Wood with Glair Sealing Wood with Glair by Dick Cartwright Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #154, 1980 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Procedure: ▶ Beat an egg white stiff and let it stand for a few hours. The clear liquid that settles out is called glair. ▶ Put 5G gum arabic (cheap from any art store) into 20CC water and let stand for a few hours, shaking occasionally. ▶ Add 10CC glair and 1/2G honey to the gum arabic. This solution paints on easily, dries quickly, and is an effective sealer. I suggest two coats. It’s also used by some as a sealer/isolation layer on the outside wood between stain and varnish. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021March 6, 2024 by Dale Phillips Acid Rain Acid Rain by Nicholas Von Robison and Perry Thomas Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly, Volume 12 #1, 1984 and Lutherie Woods and Steel String Guitars, 1998 See also, “Acid Rain Update” by Nicholas Von Robison “World Forest Outlook” by Nicholas Von Robison and Parry Thomas Introduction Enjoy is the word for this afternoon; a hundred kinds of enjoyment. If a wood sculptor had been along on this hike he or she would be having a field day — gnarled roots and trunks on the forest floor; cracks and twistings of naked stumps deceased and debarked; rolling, convoluted patterns of aging limbs. Perry and I stop and investigate engravings made by beetles on some logs. The wood, now bleached, has been hewed out and channeled in designs so intricate they can hardly be retraced. There is a simple artistry about this free-form flow, and it captures the imagination. The creatures whose paths crossed here were of a system of life completely different from our own, yet linked to it. The higher we ascend toward the Angeles crest, the richer the forest seems to become. Patches of Indian paintbrush and columbine increase in size and density. Berries grow in thickets. Alders enclose the streams. Mosses clothe the rocks. Lichens festoon the branches of trees and occasionally glow with a brilliant chartreuse when touched by a spot of sunlight. And everywhere there are trees. We reach the crest, stop to look around a bit, and give each other congratulatory smiles. Our smiles are touched with a bit of whimsy; neither of us are as young as we used to be, and we know the price in sore muscles we’ll pay for this excursion tomorrow. We continue on, the Los Angeles basin five or six thousand feet below us; we adjust our gait for descent rather than ascent. We come to a stand of lodgepole pines and discover a spring gushing out from an outcrop of granite. We plop down and share sausage, cheese, chocolate, and top it off by draping our snouts in the spring; water so cold it hurts the teeth. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
