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Thread: birdseye 43rd birthday question

  1. #1

    Default birdseye 43rd birthday question

    Out here in Fort Stinkindesert (where the women are strong, the men aren't good looking, and the children are mostly below average) I never luck out scoring old wood from violinmaker obituary watching, chasing woodworker ambulances, etc. This week I hooked up with the daughter in law of a Maine dairy farmer who started bringing maple and walnut to the southwest in 1970, letting it collect dust it in a metal building in a nearby town dry enough to be a sister city of Andamooka, Oz.
    So I'll use the 1x12 birdseye for 1 piece mandobacks, but with the 2x9.5 stock, would you cafeluthier birdseye wizards make 2pc slab backs for 14.5" wide octaves? I've only used quartersawn for 2pc GOM backs.
    thanks in advance
    anybody got a gunstock duplicator I could rent for a few weeks?
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  3. #2
    wood butcher Spruce's Avatar
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    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    Quote Originally Posted by oldwave maker View Post
    I never luck out scoring old wood from violinmaker obituary watching, chasing woodworker ambulances, etc.
    Yeah, that describes a "tonewood dealer"...

    Wow, is that 8/4 stock?? Hard to find in birdseye...

    Quote Originally Posted by oldwave maker View Post
    ....but with the 2x9.5 stock, would you cafeluthier birdseye wizards make 2pc slab backs for 14.5" wide octaves?
    Or one-piece F5s with a tad of a wing on the point...?
    Slip-match octaves would be cool too...
    I think a lot of Gibson instruments--from Loars to 'Bursts--were laid out this way, with the two halves nesting into one another on the board, using opposite edges of the board as the center-joint...

    Quote Originally Posted by oldwave maker View Post
    ....anybody got a gunstock duplicator I could rent for a few weeks?
    I've got a 100-year old German duplicarver I'd part with...
    Come on over!

  4. #3
    Registered User David Houchens's Avatar
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    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    I'm doing my first birdseye F5 and it sure is hard maple. Lots of sharpening on the finger planes. Or in this case, finger pains.

  5. #4
    Registered User j. condino's Avatar
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    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    Quote Originally Posted by oldwave maker View Post
    .....I never luck out scoring old wood from violinmaker obituary watching, chasing woodworker ambulances, etc.....
    Wish I could say the same; 'seems like I've been getting the call from too many of my friends widows the last few years to come by before the big garage sale. Make sure Mrs. Wave puts me on the first call list....

    That seasoned rock hard birdseye often seems to be more dense than rosewood. I like the slab backs idea, but I'd be inclined to use a mahogany neck with it to warm up things a bit so it doesn't sound like the bridge pickup on an old telecaster. (Even though I know Spruce loves those old plank guitars!)

    Got enough to make that double bass you've been talking about for years???? 3 piece back?

    j.
    www.condino.com

  6. #5
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    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    Whatever 'oldwave' decides to make, it will be cool. I love your instruments. I hope Mrs. Wave won't have to make that call for a very long time!!!

  7. #6
    Wood and Wire Perry Babasin's Avatar
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    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    [QUOTE=oldwave maker;1139837]Out here in Fort Stinkindesert (where the women are strong, the men aren't good looking, and the children are mostly below average)

    Where the vegetables are green, and we can sing camp songs around the old Firesign...
    ===================================
    ... I'm a California Man!

  8. #7

    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    Guess I should go back and buy the rest of the 8/4 and 12/4(!)for that upright bass, James.
    Wish the drive from Oblivione to Orcas was shorter!
    The narrow 4/4s might make some stable necks for 'plank' basses, not all that birdy, but figure all the way:
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  9. #8
    Registered User sgrexa's Avatar
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    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    Very nice find Bill. Can't wait to see what becomes of this. I love my new birdseye Girouard. I realize the "eyes" can only be see on slab or flat sawn wood and that due to the value and relative rarity of birdseye that is how it is cut. There almost always seem to be some type of curl mixed into the birdseye figure which makes this wood even more spectacular. I wonder what a piece of quartered birdseye would look like? Would you just get curly maple? Anyone know or have pics?

    Sean

  10. #9

    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    Sean, quartered birdseye is pretty, too. I have a neck-through Les Paul that I made this way because I didn't know better.
    The birdseyes get kind of long and elliptical, and it's a different look. Not as dramatic as slab-cut, for sure. I actually like it as much or better than normal birdseye... maybe just because one rarely sees that look.

  11. #10
    Registered User Cheryl Watson's Avatar
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    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    I found this conversation on a bass forum about quartersawn birdseye maple. Scroll down and there is a photo that shows the flatsawn top with birdseye figure and the quartersawn side where the birdseye shows up as streaking.

    http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/bi...uarter-262095/

  12. #11
    Registered User j. condino's Avatar
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    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    Another day at the mandolin factory workin' berdzai test boardz in the paint room....

    j.
    www.condino.com
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  13. #12
    ISO TEKNO delsbrother's Avatar
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    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    43rd birthday?

  14. #13
    Mediocre but OK with that Paul Busman's Avatar
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    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    Nice timber. Are there any available pieces 1x1x12"? I've made some really dandy penny whistles from Birdseye maple, but nice wood with lots of eyes is hard to find.
    (I caught the "Fort Stinkindesert" thing too..."
    For wooden musical fun that doesn't involve strumming, check out:
    www.busmanwhistles.com
    Handcrafted pennywhistles in exotic hardwoods.

  15. #14

    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    pm to Jim and Paul.
    that stuff is for the birds, James! h2o stains? tie dye mando practice?
    the 12/4 will make nice shelves for crates of minie balls!
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  16. #15
    wood butcher Spruce's Avatar
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    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    Yowie...

  17. #16
    Registered User j. condino's Avatar
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    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    [QUOTE=oldwave maker;1141737]....
    that stuff is for the birds, James! h2o stains? tie dye mando practice?..../QUOTE]

    Nothing water based there; that was all out of the spraygun. A friend of mine who works in a very old school double bass shop in the Northeast came by and said, " I'm tired of painting everything brown....can you show me a little color...?" This was the mild mannered one...we did a couple of more that were wayyyyyy to '80s Les Paul......

    j.
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  18. #17

    Default Re: birdseye 43rd birthday question

    Apologies for not telling all y'all about the auction of the rest of the wood last weekend, for $300 I got maybe 1500 bd ft of 12/4, 8/4, 6/4, 5/4, 4/4 birdseye, some in 16" lengths, a little 1x12 curly sugar, and a stack of 18' 2x10, 2x12 fir, some with nary a pin knot, a short handled peavey for Spruce, a soprano Columbus washboard for our drummer, and a nice woven wood laundry basket for my wife, and a small spittoon for maw!
    Time to build that dream chickencoop?

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