On the wooden low D thread, someone asked me if I could post a pic of several types of wood, both in their unworked states, and after turning to reveal the graining. If all goes well with the picture upload, here 'tis:
From left to right are Cocobolo, Bocote, and Olivewood. The turned pieces have a bit of French polish applied to show the grain better, but the actual final finish on a whistle is a LOT smoother and shinier.
This is one of the real joys of wooden instrument making-- seeing what lies within a raw piece of wood.
The piccie is big and loads very slowly, indeed, but shows some very lovely wood! Have you ever tried eucalyptus? I used some for a carpenter’s maul, and it’s held up for over 12 years!
Cheers,
Bill Whedon
On 2002-11-15 19:31, Doc Jones wrote:
Boy that’s some beautiful wood. >
Paul, have you finished any olivewood toters yet? How do they sound?
Patrick
Nope-- I have several in the “resting” stage: bore is drilled, and the outside diameter turned oversize. Now they sit for a month or so to stabilize as they expand and contract as moisture migrates in and out of the wood. I expect the olivewood will sound terrific-- this stuff is very hard, and although it has a beautiful grain pattern the actual wood fibres are very fine.The surface turns out very smooth right off the lathe tool, even without any sanding.Smells terrific too.
Paul, I’m not able to see the picture(s). I traced the code back to your homepage and still can’t find it.
What’s the secret? how are the others able to see it?
I was taught the trick of using some spit to see woodgrain when you were shopping for wood. Something in the spit seems to give a similar color to the wood under finish and brings the grain out so you can see it.
[ This Message was edited by: MandoPaul on 2002-11-16 12:16 ]
[ This Message was edited by: MandoPaul on 2002-11-16 12:18 ]
On 2002-11-16 13:30, McChastain wrote:
yes… I actually went to pauls directory on hometown aol yesterday… At one point I was able to view the top 1/8 of the picture… Hmmm
Jeez!! You weren’t able to see those" other "pictures, were you? ( just kidding, nothing raunchy there)
He he… I guess you could say the little bit that I saw of the wood was a “teazer” though! I was pulling out all my computer geek tricks trying to see that pic… since the bocote one might be my future whistle!?
Ahhh…Finally got it! I downloaded the Chimera Browser from Mozilla… http://www.mozilla.org/projects/chimera/ It didn’t show up in the message board but the link worked!
