Three piece necks

[Ragamuffin]

Greetings! Do any of you fine builders construct three piece necks, and if so, what wood do you commonly use down the middle? I really like this look and think I'd like to incorporate it into my work.

Regards,

Steve Ragsdale

[labraid]

Hey Steve, pretty much anything you like the looks of which is at least as dense or denser than the neck wood you're using (recommended but not absolutely required). Dense tropical woods look great and help to sturdy up the neck a bit... purpleheart, ebony, bloodwood... Or something with a contrasting grain pattern (curly cherry on curly maple), or interesting ray cell pattern (sycamore). Have fun with it!

[Jim Hilburn]

I've always used ebony. And this won't help most here, but for anyone in Colorado, Paxtons Hardwoods in Denver has an unbelievable bin of Gaboon Ebony right now. Some of the biggest boards I've ever seen. And some is quite
black. Here's a board I got. It was about $65 but there's quite a few fingerboards and neckstripes in it. I need to go back and get some for overlays.

[amowry]

Wow! That's a steal. I'm envious. I've seen boards half that size go for $100 up here in MT.

[Darryl Wolfe]

"Paxtons Hardwoods in Denver has an unbelievable bin of Gaboon Ebony right now. Some of the biggest boards I've ever seen"


Jim,

I don't see any website for them..do you have to order by phone or in person?

[Jim Hilburn]

1-800-332-1331.
I guess about 20% of what they have would be acceptable for instruments, so ordering by phone will be risky. There's some with a lot of visible grain and white streaks which I've found will disappear to a degree over time once exposed, and some of it has quite a bit of checking. I spent about an hour rummaging through it.

[Chris Baird]

How much was it per pound?

[Darryl Wolfe]

I got quite a bit from Charlotte Hardwood (NC) in the mid/late 90's. They too had big board..but needed the "in person eye" to pick the good stuff. They were about $65 ft then

[Rob Grant]

I use a local "dry country" timber commonly called Cooktown Ironwood (Erythrophleum chlorostachys). It's also called "red ebony," but there is no relation between Cooktown Ironwood and true ebony. The attached photo shows a recently finished F-4 with a three piece neck. Exposure to UV will eventually darken the center strip to the colour of the peghead veneer (actually a rich burgundy red).

The tree that this timber comes from has very toxic leaves. In the late 1800s camels were used locally to haul copper ore from bush mines to centralized smelters for processing. In the dry season, these trees maintain their lush, green leaves. Casual grazing on the ironwood literally destroyed almost the total population of pack camels within a few years.

[John Bertotti]

Rob what is your back wood? thanks John

[Rob Grant]

John,

It's what the locals call "Queensland Walnut" or Endriandra palmerstonii. It's a member of the Laurel family (same family as the advocado). It's a beautiful, hard, dense carving wood.

Billets from the butt of this northern rainforest tree are generally high in silica and hell on high speed tools. One other slight drawback is the smell it gives off when working with a saw or sanding disc. It has a distinct odour very close to that of a "technicolour yawn" (vomit).

Getting back to the ebony mentioned above, we have within 200 clicks of our location several species of native ebony (genus Diospyros). One found in the drier limestone country actually produces a usable black "pipe" of the classic black ebony wood. Attached below is a weathered limb or root section of Queensland ebony. Hidden fractures and other faults plus scarcity of large pipes limit its use in
instruments to the odd peghead veneer, end plug or violin peg. The living tree is too beautiful and unique to sacrifice in it's natural state. What little native ebony I have is material salvage from long dead trees.