No Power Tool Mandolin

[Jim Garber]

I would also suggest as another possibility local cabinet shops that might have cutoffs that could be used. And those might be good folks to become friends with. People who love wood!

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

I would also suggest as another possibility local cabinet shops that might have cutoffs that could be used. And those might be good folks to become friends with. People who love wood!

I did try this initially, and I contacted many cabinet makers nearby, but nearly none of them replied, and the ones that did, told me they couldn't help me.

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

Does anybody know any links to high quality wood on amazon? I'm looking and I can't find much.

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

Ignore this.

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

Has anybody here bought from Old Standard Musical Instrument Wood? Would you recommend it?

[billhay4]

Yes.
Bill

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

I found this nice cheap sitka spruce specifically for mandolins and violins. https://www.woodtoworks.com/Mandolin...4_p_12040.html Looks good and has free shipping too. Will come to a total of $12 for me. I am SUUUUPER excited, and glad you guys told me about buying good wood. If this website didn't exist, I would be dead.

[Timbofood]

Pranav,
Practice on the pine with the tools to begin to develop a feel for what’s happening before you attack the nice stock. You would feel terrible if you damaged a nice piece of material with a simple (avoidable through a little experience) mistake.
You would not be dead but probably frustrated!
How are your box projects going? Use the pine for one or two of those. Show your progress, please?

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

Pranav,
Practice on the pine with the tools to begin to develop a feel for what’s happening before you attack the nice stock. You would feel terrible if you damaged a nice piece of material with a simple (avoidable through a little experience) mistake.
You would not be dead but probably frustrated!
How are your box projects going? Use the pine for one or two of those. Show your progress, please?

OK, I'll try practicing some tomorrow and throughout the week as I wait for my wood and plans. I'll show you all how it goes.

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

I don't have pine at my house, but I found some hardwood, and tried, but man was it hard. I only managed to make one side before my arm was aching like heck (I am super scrawny). I will still try to finish it, but doesn't seem likely. I also have some plywood at home, do you think I could practice with that?

[pops1]

Plywood would be harder, glue will dull your tools. I would stay with solid wood. How sharp are your tools? You should be able to shave hair with them. It also helps to keep your sharpening stone handy and make a few cuts, sharpen a few strokes, make a few cuts. It is easier to keep something sharp than to resharpen it. If you tools are sharp you won't have to push hard to make cuts, and don't make deep cuts, take your time and save your body and your tool edge.

[Jess L.]

oops nevermind, already answered...

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

Plywood would be harder, glue will dull your tools. I would stay with solid wood. How sharp are your tools? You should be able to shave hair with them. It also helps to keep your sharpening stone handy and make a few cuts, sharpen a few strokes, make a few cuts. It is easier to keep something sharp than to resharpen it. If you tools are sharp you won't have to push hard to make cuts, and don't make deep cuts, take your time and save your body and your tool edge.

OK, so I need to sharpen my tools better. They can't shave hair. OK I will keep you all posted on the next attempt.

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

Don't mind this.

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

Also, unfortunately, my search for top wood is on again. There was a bit of a misunderstanding between me and woodtoworks.

[Timbofood]

Am I mistaken? I thought you had posted a couple of pictures of a couple of pieces of wood, no?
A small piece of pretty much anything shouldn’t be hard to find especially if there is a “real” lumberyard around. You need to find a place that smells of wood, there has to be someone dong some kind of woodworking around you. I suggest looking for them, ask if they have some scrap, go to the shop, look at what they do, this is face to face work not electronic annoyance stuff. You are looking into some “old school” kind of work here, it is a slower pace than the modern world seems to demand these days.
Too bad about the top wood deal, things happen.
There is a lot of material out there.
Have you looked at Stewmac.com for material? <$30.00 for a set of top wood.

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

I know I am not supposed to, and that all of you will be super against this, but I am super tempted to buy a hardwood like poplar for the top. I might actually fall for the trap and do it. I know I should listen to all of you talented smart luthiers, but sometimes I like to give my curiosity a joyride. What's the worst that could happen anyways? A bad sounding instrument will come out of the money and time I spent. Money spent on tools that can be used more, and time that I use for absolutely nothing else. And it would be a cool learning experience. Even if it sounds like crap, I could make it a "showpiece" or replace the top with spruce. I feel bad for discounting all of your advice, but I might let myself do this.

[Timbofood]

So, just to get something cobbled out you feel like using the wrong (or material of questionable suitability) stock? This is really an interesting thread. I don’t see an up side to spending the time carving to just make something which has the cards stacked against it.
Do what you want but, you ask questions, get advice from very talented luthiers and choose to do what you were going to do in the first place. Why didn’t you just go chainsaw out some pallets and nail up something with some wire on it. If you want your effort to be rewarding, TAKE YOUR TIME and make something nice otherwise I think it’s time for me to move on to building a picnic table.

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

So, just to get something cobbled out you feel like using the wrong (or material of questionable suitability) stock? This is really an interesting thread. I don’t see an up side to spending the time carving to just make something which has the cards stacked against it.
Do what you want but, you ask questions, get advice from very talented luthiers and choose to do what you were going to do in the first place. Why didn’t you just go chainsaw out some pallets and nail up something with some wire on it. If you want your effort to be rewarding, TAKE YOUR TIME and make something nice otherwise I think it’s time for me to move on to building a picnic table.

I asked questions so I could be informed on the topic I am interested in and learn more, but I haven't seen anybody try a poplar top, so why should I not? There's no point in not trying. I want to see what will come out of it. I didn't take some wood, nail up something, and put wire on it because that isn't an effort. That is pathetic. That is a guaranteed failure. I am taking all of your advice and still plan to ask questions and listen to what you say, but this is just one of those things, where I want to try my hardest to make a work of art from something people doubted me for. This is why I said sorry so much. I don't want anybody to feel like I wasted their trying to help somebody. And I don't want anybody to feel disrespected by me outright not taking their advice. But I really want to try this. I hope you all will still help me and answer my questions, and please do not feel offended. I just really want to try this. Also, people generally say to use softwoods for tops, but poplar is softer than most softwoods, and mahogany and koa are commonly used on guitar tops, so I don't think I should limit myself to softwoods. I hope if you all don't stand with me, I will prove you wrong and show you I can do this.

[Jim Garber]

Do whatever you feel like you need to do. There is really no wrong path. Luthiers have tried all sorts of combinations. And you don’t have to accede to anyone here for sure. However, you did ask what would be the best way to do things to produce a good mandolin and you received opinions equal to a sum total of probably a few hundred years of professional luthiery experience.

Should you decide to go a more conventional way, there is this wood seller in the classifieds. I don’t know but maybe he has some decent wood at a good price.

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

Do whatever you feel like you need to do. There is really no wrong path. Luthiers have tried all sorts of combinations. And you don’t have to accede to anyone here for sure. However, you did ask what would be the best way to do things to produce a good mandolin and you received opinions equal to a sum total of probably a few hundred years of professional luthiery experience.

Should you decide to go a more conventional way, there is this wood seller in the classifieds. I don’t know but maybe he has some decent wood at a good price.

And I will try to take those few hundred years of professional luthierie experience and adapt it into what I am interested in, and experimenting with unconventional wood.

[Jeff Mando]

Just on the off-chance, I went ahead and checked the calendar -- NOPE, it's not April Fools Day, yet. Nonetheless, this thread has many qualities that remind me of an infamous thread from a couple years ago that went 37 pages, largely unchecked, about a young man trying to buy a very expensive mandolin, then returning it, then buying another, then returning it, and on and on, and finally getting back one he had already returned, I think! Featuring almost hourly updates, included in this journey was a thought process and range of emotion that I didn't know human beings were even capable of. Much of which was captured on video....some of it even posted here! Yes, I learned a lot from it. No, not about mandolins, but about psychology, class, nuisance, impossible details, and the search for something that probably doesn't even exist. Mostly, it was exhausting, but I found myself following the thread like a soap opera to get my daily fix! No, this thread isn't there yet, but has some of the same makings, IMHO.

On a positive note, I think the beauty of youth, beside boundless energy, is the ability to try something that a person with more experience would talk themselves out of. It doesn't hurt anything to try. A few years ago at a vintage guitar show, there was a full sized guitar on display carved from a single log of wood. One piece of wood. No glue. No nothing. Who cares how it sounded? It was amazing!

[Pranav Ajay Warrier]

Just on the off-chance, I went ahead and checked the calendar -- NOPE, it's not April Fools Day, yet. Nonetheless, this thread has many qualities that remind me of an infamous thread from a couple years ago that went 37 pages, largely unchecked, about a young man trying to buy a very expensive mandolin, then returning it, then buying another, then returning it, and on and on, and finally getting back one he had already returned, I think! Featuring almost hourly updates, included in this journey was a thought process and range of emotion that I didn't know human beings were even capable of. Much of which was captured on video....some of it even posted here! Yes, I learned a lot from it. No, not about mandolins, but about psychology, class, nuisance, impossible details, and the search for something that probably doesn't even exist. Mostly, it was exhausting, but I found myself following the thread like a soap opera to get my daily fix! No, this thread isn't there yet, but has some of the same makings, IMHO.

On a positive note, I think the beauty of youth, beside boundless energy, is the ability to try something that a person with more experience would talk themselves out of. It doesn't hurt anything to try. A few years ago at a vintage guitar show, there was a full sized guitar on display carved from a single log of wood. One piece of wood. No glue. No nothing. Who cares how it sounded? It was amazing!

OK, I will calm down this thread a lot.

[HoGo]

Pranav, the drawings are packed and I will take them to Post office as soon as I will go around one. I even took one spruce top that I would send to you, but the shipping alone would cost more than just buying the wood in the US...
In the meanwhile try your hands at some simple jobs. If you don't have wood, have a walk around your town wth a handsaw in backpack and I'm suer you'll find more waste wood than you need for many smaller jobs just thrown out at recycle bins or at building sites... Much of it will be quite dry, and after short time inside stable enough for small projects. I know I could find enough spruce off-cuts for a top or two at few places I walked around few days ago. I have quite a few boards of exotic woods I scored from pallets or shipping crates coming from Asia.
SO sharpen your tools (I recommend Wet or dry paper for sharpening instead stones and good flat surface - even laminated particleboard or piece of flooring will do just don't wet the edges) and try to carve something.

[John Kelly]

I know I am not supposed to, and that all of you will be super against this, but I am super tempted to buy a hardwood like poplar for the top. I might actually fall for the trap and do it. I know I should listen to all of you talented smart luthiers, but sometimes I like to give my curiosity a joyride. What's the worst that could happen anyways? A bad sounding instrument will come out of the money and time I spent. Money spent on tools that can be used more, and time that I use for absolutely nothing else. And it would be a cool learning experience. Even if it sounds like crap, I could make it a "showpiece" or replace the top with spruce. I feel bad for discounting all of your advice, but I might let myself do this.

Surely, Pranav, you were always going to go your own way, whatever advice you were being given in this thread. Certainly no-one can fault you for your enthusiasm and drive. Good luck with whatever you end up making, and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing, as the late Mr Frank Sinatra said in song, that "I did it my way!"