Posted on February 1, 2026April 1, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked For Me: Bandsaw Guides It Worked For Me: Bandsaw Guides by Rick Rubin Originally published in American Lutherie #127, 2016 I purchased an old 14" Rockwell bandsaw from the late 1940s at a garage sale, and it didn’t take me long to want to replace the guide blocks. Steel-against-steel didn’t seem like a great idea. They tend to induce unwanted vibration. They also heat the blade which can, in the worst case, draw some of the temper from it. I looked at some of the roller bearing guides, but I didn’t like any of ones I saw that fit my saw, and I didn’t want to lay out that much money. I remembered looking at an early-20th-century Crescent bandsaw and remembered that it had the remains of some dense wood for the lower guides. On investigation, I realized it was lignum vitae, also known as guaiacum. Lignum is incredibly dense at 84 lbs./cu. ft. and is waxy/oily. I recalled that lignum had been used as self-lubricating pillow-block shaft bearings in ships. In fact, it’s still used as an industrial bearing material, from ships to hydro generators, and is being touted as an enviro-friendly alternative to eliminate greases and oils that can leak into water supplies. I had some lignum vitae; so I used the original guide blocks as a pattern and cut the wood blocks to match. I’ve used them ever since. I can pinch them against the blade without concern and resurface them on the belt sander as they wear. I’ve run my original set for over eight years and still have a lot of service left in them. ◆ Both photos by Rick Rubin.
Posted on June 6, 2024May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Ossifying Wood Questions: Ossifying Wood by Rick Rubin Originally published in American Lutherie #95, 2008 see also, Questions: Ossification of Guitar Soundboards by Benz Tschannen Rick Rubin from Spokane, Washington responds to Benz Tschannen’s question in AL #89 and AL #93 on the use of sodium silicate, aka water glass, for ossifying wood: I’d refer you to the article I wrote in 1990 (Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Two, p. 362). Save yourself the grief: sodium silicate is very destructive to your tops. I was glad to hear that you’d just been experimenting on samples and not on an instrument yet.
Posted on January 18, 2010May 13, 2025 by Dale Phillips In Memoriam: L.M. “Buzz” Vineyard In Memoriam: L.M. “Buzz” Vineyard 1950 — 2021 by Rick Rubin and Michael Elwell Originally published in American Lutherie #145, 2022 I met Buzz sometime in the later 1980s, having first met him indirectly through his instruments while doing setups and other repairs for customers in the Spokane area who owned his work. Buzz was a unique character, as many of us in this craft can be, with an ingratiating and expressive way of communicating, usually with a hand-rolled cigarette dangling from his lips, and a very idiosyncratic approach to instrument making. His models varied from parlor to jumbo sized, flat tops, carved tops, carved tops with flat backs, mandolins, and mandolas. Some of them were stunning, all were interesting. My bandmate Don Thomsen who knew Buzz much better than I has this to say. “I guess my favorite times with Buzz were when he would call me over to check out the latest instrument he’d finished. We would admire it and carefully play the first few tunes. He was a terrible businessman, so I helped him find homes for at least a dozen of them. My sons all own Vineyards.” He did all of that while living on the edge of squalor. He’d had a nice clean home until a fire damaged it badly. But his workshop was different; his focus and love were inside those shop walls. Many of us would donate materials to him so he could keep building instruments. All the cigarettes and other environmental exposures caught up with him and he received a diagnosis of COPD. The last few years were hard. Spokane has lost a colorful character and fine craftsman. — Rick Rubin Buzz Vineyard at the 1980 GAL Convention in San Francisco. Photo by Dale Korsmo. I live in Idaho an hour or so from Spokane, Washington, where Buzz Vinyard lived. We spent some fun time together on a trip to a GAL Convention and would cross paths at luthier-group meetings in Spokane. Occasionally we would visit each other at our home/shops. Buzz was colorful and charismatic and I enjoyed his company. Getting to know him and sharing a love of lutherie, I found him to be intelligent, curious, and creative. His work showed his own artistic flair. Buzz accumulated a lifetime’s knowledge of, and appreciation for, wood. Once he gave me some western red cedar that he had obtained decades ago in the county where I live. He wanted to share with me the unique and pleasant fragrance of this particular tree. He is missed. May he rest in peace. — Michael Elwell
