We're Still Using Wood

[Lance Lawson]

I've been in the guitar game for my entire life. I've been building since 1998 and I have heard many many time that we're running out of wood. Well I still buy wood in what ever quantity I need and I still buy almost every species of wood I choose. While it might be true some of the old standards are scarce the alternatives have proven to be as often as not spectacular. I can remember hearing back in the 90's that we'd be out of wood by the early 2000's. It didn't happen. So I have confidence wood will continue to serve our craft.

[Bob Francis]

[Clay Schaeffer]

As small scale builders we can afford to pay more and be somewhat picky with what we build with (when that is allowed) But I have noticed a drop in the quality of what is sold and a slipping of the standards of what is "premium" quality wood. Prices are up, quality is down, and stump wood is sold as "spectacular grain".
There are a lot of good alternative species that can make beautiful sounding instruments if you can overcome market prejudice.

[Bob Gleason]

When I came to Hawaii around 1982, I was buying koa at 19 cents a BF. That was koa I cut myself. It was left over logging operation stumpage, not lumber. Lumber, curly lumber, sold for the princely sum of about $3 a BF. That was an outrageous price, and milled boards were beyond my budget. Today, quartered curly koa here in Hawaii, sells for between $100 & $200 a BF. & up, that is if you can even find any. I have not seen any nice koa for sale in over a year. The grading scale has also changed to reflect the cost. Wood that was once called select has suddenly become curly. It's all in the eyes of the seller. I used to take wood to the GAL to sell to pay for my trip to America. Some of my curly sets were as much as $100.00 & hard to sell. If I go to the next GAL, which I have heard might be the last one, I won't be taking any koa. It's just too hard to get.
Here in Hawaii, there are lots of alternative species of wood to choose from. You have to mostly log your own because they are not cut commercially, but as nice as the alternatives are, koa is still king. Acceptance of alternatives is not easy. While there are still spectacular examples of almost any exotic instrument species available at a price, the quantity and quality of available species is declining as I see it. Yes, we will always have wood, but it ain't the same. Attached is a simple all redwood body uke made from reclaimed wood from an oceanside house deck. Actually even sounds decent and yes I actually even sold it. So, alternatives are possible

[Barry Daniels]

I like the natural soundholes.

[Randy Roberts]

Bob,
Your post brought back so many memories.
In '75 I did an internship on the big island, and on my days off would ride on equine calls with Billy Bergan, the only horse Vet at the time, seeing places and sights no tourists ever get to see and meeting some of the kindest people I've ever run into.. On one call, the client was finishing up the cabinets in a house he was building and I couldn't believe the beauty of the wood he was using. Seeing my interest, he handed me a short board of Koa and said "take it with you".
I wasn't a wood worker, but I carried that board with me all over the country over the next 30 years, never knowing what I'd ever do with it, but periodically pulling it out just to stare at how beautiful it was.
It finally found a home in the little travel guitar at the bottom of this group, one of the first guitars I ever made.

[Bob Gleason]

Randy- Cool story. I have also been lucky to spend a lot of time on the private ranches over the past 40 years. It is an amazing island. Happy New Year!-Bob

[Dan Smith]

My local prices are up about 150% before covid.
Bubinga and most Ebonies are no where to be found.
I have been using some lovely plantation grown Mahogany at $14 board foot. (Woodcraft) it’s a light gold color and seems to be stable.
Pre covid real Mahogany was $5 a board foot. My wife tried to get me to buy the entire lot, but like a dummy I did not.
Almost everything I buy is rough cut or rough planed.

[Clay Schaeffer]

Wood that was once relegated to the burn pile is now marketed by retailers as "unique" in some fashion. Years ago I traded some labor for a pile of Bubinga boards that were a mix of heart and sap wood. When wood was cheap and plentiful the boards were culled from the kiln because of the high percentage of sap. It did make nice tool boxes.

[Bryan Bear]

That is beautiful Clay! I have a similar toolbox on my "to do someday" list. I hope someday mine looks half as nice.

[Bob Gleason]

Clay- Except for the sapwood, it's pretty nice. Just kidding! It's just gorgeous.Nice work!=Bob

[Chuck Tweedy]

OMG - you guys are all still here. I've not checked in for LONG ass time.
Nice koa guitar Randy.

As you guys have pointed out, wood quality and availability has changed a LOT since I started this habit in 1999. Thankfully i pack-rat faster than i build so I still have some really nice wood stashed away for when i have time to build with it.
Some really nice figured walnut - *nudge nudge Randy*

[Randy Roberts]

Chuck, great to see you back!
The walnut Chuck is referencing was the first of a batch of billets from one of my get rich slow schemes.
Due to this guitar building addiction problem, I got to know the head sawyer for the largest walnut processor here in the Midwest. They milled 1.5 million board feet a year of just black walnut. If I’m remembering correctly, I think it was about 1 out of 2 or 3 thousand trees were wide enough to result in guitar backs (after trimming out the pith), were straight grained, and had heavy flame.

The plan was: when he saw a highly flamed trunk come through the saw, and it was wide enough (>24" dia.) he would stash the middle two cuts (the only perfectly quartersawn slices per tree). He would pull those two boards from the run before it was stacked and stickered to go into the steamer and then into the kiln to be dried. They had a huge old quanset shed that was seldom used, and he would put the boards in the back of that shed.

When he had a few boards stashed, I would then come over and pick out the boards I wanted. The rest went back into their production flow. The boards I wanted I would pay their regular wholesale rate of I think it was 3.00 / board foot (and a bottle of scotch magically appearing behind the driver's seat of his pickup truck in the parking lot). Normally any flamed wood coming through the mill after processing was immediately pulled and sold to firearm companies for gunstocks at 8.50 a bd. ft.

I would end up each year with the pick of the litter from 1.5 million bd. ft. of walnut, not steamed, so it retained the broad whitish sapwood and deep rich chocolate brown instead of the more blah, greyish color steaming causes (most all commercially available walnut), and I got it before it hit the kilns for drying so it could be air dried.

I would get 3 36 to 40”x10”x2.5”. billets (a little over 6 bd. ft. ) from each board after squaring and planing the faces so you could see the flame and grain structure and trimming out the pith. I dipped each end in an electric roaster of melted parafin in it to seal the ends of the billets. I planned to then sell the billets to luthiers to air dry for 3-5 years, (or resaw green to dry faster), and re-saw back and side sets to their own specs. They could get 3-4 guitar back and sides out of a billet.

I think a B&S set of walnut with high flame ran around 125.00 per set back then.
The numbers ran something like:
1 board= ~ 20bd.ft. x 3.00 = 60.00 my cost (+ whiskey) = about 35.00 per billet my cost
I planned to sell the billets at around 100.00-150.00 / billet plus shipping.
The buyer would get around 375.00 worth of back and sides, and got perfectly quartersawn, deep rich chocolate brown walnut with flame throughout that wasn’t crotchwood, and wide enough to use the white sapwood or trim it out.

I did a feasibility run of 6 or 8 billets, just sending a billet free to some luthiers around the country to get their feedback, and appeared to get good reviews. Chuck even did kind of a promotional video, demonstrating how to re-saw it.
So - once I knew my retirement project was a sure thing, the sawyer retired, the company shut down their local mill, and I only had one billet left for me.
Sigh.

[Barry Daniels]

Wow, that is spectacular. Did you inlay the lines before bending?

[Randy Roberts]

Barry,
Definitely. Don't know how you would possibly do so after bending.
Below is a picture of another ( crotch wood) back, that pretty much sums up everything as to how. Sides done same way.
Just need to figure out what pattern you want to end up with. Using the jig with a pencil instead of router really helps in figuring out a pattern.
Yellowheart for the lines, thin CA, scrape level after each line is inlayed so router isn't raised up by the proud inlay when it cuts for the next one, and then slide your back or side to the next "station" and cut the next line.

[Barry Daniels]

I will be trying this.

[Randy Roberts]

Barry,
I'd recommend using a laminate trimmer rather than a dremel. You can see the gaps caused by the slop in the dremel bearings on the side pic if you click it twice to enlarge the picture( I don't think you can beat the DeWalt 611, great depth control). Those guitars were done in the early days when the laminate trimmers weren't what they are now.
Or a pencil grinder if you don't mind the noise of the compressor for air. The 50-60,000 rpm makes it cut like butter and unlikely to break the bits if you do thin lines.
A downcutting spiral bit sure makes for a cleaner edge to the trough. Aim for about 1/2 the thickness of the wood for a trough depth.

Also, makes for less "pucker" during the process if you inlay the sides thick, then take them to bending thickness off the inside face of the side after the inlay is done, and then bend.

Feel free to PM me if you want, but I think that pretty much covers it.

Hope you will post a picture of what you come up with.

[Matthew Lau]

These stories are sorta fascinating to read.

Oh, and Bob...thanks for selling me Koa.
I hope to finish my friends' ukuleles before the kiddo arrives in July.

[Gilbert Fredrickson]

I've heard carbon fiber violins that are as effective as their wooden counterparts. Experts like ourselves, of course, can differentiate between the two.