Just cool wood

[spudmunkey]

Thought it could be neat to have a place to post an occasional photo of some neat pieces of wood that may or may not have anything to do with musical instruments at all. Just a, "Thanks, Mother Nature!" I suppose.

Was at Woodcraft earlier today and saw these 7-8 ft tall log slices of purpleheart.



A few months ago I was at a local custom furniture factory, and they had this hunk of Buckeye Burl hanging on the wall, about 4-5 feet wide (maybe bigger).

[DesmoBob]

That purple heart looks like it has some flame in it.

[Praiser]

A few years ago a large limb was blown out of one of our 2 Black Walnut trees.
This is what was exposed at the base of the limb. I thought it was super cool looking so I snapped a couple of pics.
Amazingly I was able to find them and get one into this thread that Spud made just for things like this.

[spudmunkey]

Large Willow burl I saw in a showroom at a custom furniture maker's office today.

[spudmunkey]

[spudmunkey]

So, veneer is so inconsequential to some companies that they will use big sheets like this flamed sycamore as BACKING veneer (to keep balanced support on the front and back, to prevent sagging/cupping) on a desk.

This is a desk I delivered this morning for a client. During assembly on site, all three of the installers asked at least twice if I was sure that this was the bottom.

And for those interested, the desk's top is just a boring plain-sliced hickory veneer that didn't even have much "hickory" character to it. Not even worth photographing...especially because the maker made it wrong (facepalm) anyways...

[Coda]

(Found on Facebook)

[spudmunkey]

Seen at a custome furniture factory today:

A dead, standing walnut tree trunk with a decent-sized burl. We don't know if fire is what killed it, but at some point it was damaged by fire. The coloring if the wood as seen in the cuts was like deep rich caramel-ized sugar (my pic didn't turn out. ) This whole thing was probably about 10ft tall.



I think this is a slice of a maple burl. It wasn't labelled, and i didn't get a chance to ask. Diameter is about 3.5-4-ish feet at the widest point.

[Doctor Doug]

(Found on Facebook)

Are you sure this is wood? It looks like someone might have built a dollhouse out of bacon!

[Coda]

^^^ ^^^

[spudmunkey]

Walnut, or stained maple. What do you think, sirs?

20170629_121244.jpg

[Praiser]

I lean towards Walnut, but just barely and with only minimal justification.
The grain on the middle section. below the flamed part, just looks more like Walnut grain structure than Maple to me.
Wouldn't swear to it in a court of law, though.
Very cool looking regardless.

[spudmunkey]

"Scrap" figured wood veneer used on the underside of a table.

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[Doctor Turn]

So ya think that alder is a plain unfigured wood good only for colored/opaque finishes?

I give you--one of the coolest alder superstrats on earth (unless the guy is mistaken and it's ash.. which based on the figure wouldn't totally surprise me):


Not only is it clear on alder, it's a satin finish on alder, which usually doesn't bring out the figure the way a "deep clear" poly does. Really cool Bolt Plus. Rosewood board. Hardtail. Looks like it might be a 1 pc body. Wicked.



Ah to have limitless disposable cash. Ah to be wealthy.

EDIT: might as well throw in a couple other "woody" lookers I saw on Verb, both in koa, both sadly with Wilkies:

TL60:



and a REALLY well figured Bolt PLus, with the cut of wood sending out code thru its figure saying "I'm one of the great sounding ones!"




It's not that it's the most captivating looking cut of koa (its not shabby either), but most of the really incredible sounding koa guitars I've played (including my old Carvin) have that vertical pattern of grain figure. Great deep rich old growth color too! (Satin finish--imagine with a poly clear!)

[gumbynotpokey]

where's xjbebop when you need him?

[spudmunkey]

Turns out I have an allergy (or at least an acute sensitivity) to the saw dust from zebrano and/or Bolivian rosewood...

These will have to be New Year's presents...

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Also pictured: black walnut, northern ash, and Baltic Birch plywood.

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some phone stands for client/co-worker gifts

[spudmunkey]

Some flamed purpleheart:

[Doctor Turn]

I think purpleheart and other variants like bloodwood are interesting, but I'm not that crazy about the look (although purp is supposed to be insanely sturdy). Like I'd never want a purp or blood top. On the other hand I admit that I would be interested to see what a slab body made into something like a Special or Junior style guitar would look like, since they're often painted red ("Heritage Cherry") to begin with. That might be cool.

The single-most interesting wood that I wish Kiesel would use for a slab guitar or even a topwood is pistachio. I know I've brought it up before, but it's been at least a year, so let the lobbying efforts renew themselves!

Suhr Pistachio top/limba body:


Walla Walla TTop Hardwood Pistachio Magic Custom Tele:


Another incredible Suhr:


of course those brainbending Born guitars:




I haven't the foggiest of what it sounds like in terms of it's performance as a body wood, or if it could be used for acoustics or thin laminate pressed ply for a semihollow or full hollow jazz guitar, but as a decorative top it's as "woody" looking as they come, and utterly unique, doesn't need a speck of paint!

This bass:

and this bass:

Mayones Regius 6 Pistachio

and of course this Tobias bass, one of the first pistachio anything I'd ever seen:

[spudmunkey]

I've always liked Olive wood but I have no idea what's it's properties are.

[Brock]

I need to take pictures of the firewwod I cut. every so often I think to myself some of the wood may be of better use as a guitar or furniture.