New Wood Day

TTony · February 2020

Kalimna said:

Here's a chair I made from some Scottish walnut (along with ash and cherry)

That looks a bit special @kalimna!

Kalimna · February 2020

Thanks Tony - it was built 10 years ago for my wife to feed our first boy. Although a very comfortable chair to sit it, it wasn't when used to feed a baby.
Ive made another for some friends (that helped pay for my Ryder LP), and am hapy to build more

Cheers,
Adam

PeteC · February 2020

Spent a bit of time building a router planing jig today for prepping the Idigbo body blanks.
Just had a quick test, and it machines really easily and is vey light in colour ( so far ). Should be very nice to work with I think.

And the router planing jig is going to come in very handy now its built. An hour with the table saw and a few bits and pieces of MDF.

Need to make a jointing jig for the DIY router table next

TTony · February 2020

I’m going to cheat @PeteC and put mine through the thicknesser!

Also, some of this tape
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DE2P5FG/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A1OE756QMNXDYS&psc=1
on top of the side uprights of your jig might help it move a little moe easily?

PeteC · February 2020

Thicknesser.......long way off for me. At least the jig only cost a fiver to make ( alright the router cost more than some thicknessers) !

TTony · April 2020

Not wanting to rush things ... I've finally got round to starting work on the Idigbo and Utile planks that I bought about 3 months ago!

Some nice patterning/features in the Utile

The wood itself is all nice and clean with no defects.

I'll probably use this without a cap and do some top carving. It's still at 45mm after thicknessing to clean it up, so plenty of thickness to play with.

The Idigbo is pretty plain (as expected) and a lot lighter than the Utile

This plank is also wide - but about 2"-3" too narrow to be a one piece., as shown by the edges of a template poking out from between the two pieces of wood ...

So, my cunning plan is to use some "wings" on the lower bout area and make it a 3-piece body. I should have more than enough "spare" bits for the wings one way or another, so saves wasting wood. Plus it'll be capped (because there's nothing of interest in the wood) so won't be visible from the front!

Unless someone comes along to tell me that's a daft idea ...

Rabs · April 2020

I have some advice about Utile... When I have used it in the past often I will stain it. Its not something I do with wood that often as usually the wood looks good enough by itself but I think with Utile it really helps it look more like mahogany and more interesting.

So what I do is this. You will see here that the neck wood is lighter than the body.
https://i.imgur.com/gFQazC9.jpg

I use these two stains... One to give it highlights and the other to darken it up a little
https://i.imgur.com/vLOcTUX.jpg

With the antique pine stain. I also added it to the side of the body to see what it looks like (don't mind if the sides are darker anyway)
https://i.imgur.com/fi5nV7Y.jpg

And then with the second stain (only on the neck) so I can see if it matches the back piece before I do the whole back
https://i.imgur.com/jkyhmBE.jpg

Then I did the whole back in antique pine.. you can see here how it highlights it (remember its all gonna go darker when you add finish)
https://i.imgur.com/6PUF4QP.jpg

And then with some finish on
https://i.imgur.com/EkFuIuB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/8nchzSf.jpg

Here you can really see the yellow highlights
https://i.imgur.com/UuoTNzt.jpg

Anyway.. You obviously don't have to do it.. But I do think it looks nice like that

TTony · April 2020

Thanks for the tips @Rabs ; - I've not got as far as thinking about finishing options yet but your post-treatment wood certainly looks a lot better than it did pre-treatment.

thomasross20 · August 2023

Rabs said:

Sweet.. I personally LOVE Utile, used it on several builds.. Actually harder than "Genuine" Mahogany and can be way prettier if its cut correctly... What you want to avoid really is Meranti... It can be ok but is quite boring mostly, not as good a Mahogany substitute as Utile.

I just commented re sipo in this thread:
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/221281/

You reckon it has better tonal characteristics compared to "real" mahogany?
I reckon it probably does.

Lacewood literally hurt my ears though so if it's even slightly related I'm steering clear.

Rabs · August 2023

thomasross20 said:

Rabs said:

Sweet.. I personally LOVE Utile, used it on several builds.. Actually harder than "Genuine" Mahogany and can be way prettier if its cut correctly... What you want to avoid really is Meranti... It can be ok but is quite boring mostly, not as good a Mahogany substitute as Utile.

I just commented re sipo in this thread:
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/221281/

You reckon it has better tonal characteristics compared to "real" mahogany?
I reckon it probably does.

Lacewood literally hurt my ears though so if it's even slightly related I'm steering clear.

Well thats a HUGE can of worms... Tonewood arrggghhhh

Its one of those things that lots of people have different opinions on but no one can really prove...

All wood is different, like each piece of wood even of the same species... When you cut through any wood you find small pockets of denseness which is different for each individual piece of wood. Its why it can be so hard to predict.

But in theory yes, Utile is harder than genuine mahogany so should give a tighter/brighter response. That depends also on what sort of pickups you are using..

Lacewood.. Depends again on what type... London Plane is a lace wood related to maple and is harder than genuine mahogany but softer than african... Sits in a sweet spot like Korina.

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