Desperately seeking laburnum...

[Pete Howlett]

I'm a musical instrument maker who builds ukulele. I have developed an indigenous uke but need a source of laburnum to make it 100% British. Here is a view of it with a Welsh yew body, Scottish alder neck, burr Englsih elm headplate and, sadly, an Indian rosewood fingerboard. It is the fingerboard which needs upgrading - dimension stock 12" long by 2" wide minimum. I'd prefer to resaw myself - see my video on resawing using a Startrite 301. There are some vids of my workshop practice on youtube which I note is blocked on this forum... why? at http://ukulelecosmos.com I have uploaded loads of vids and no-one has uploaded anything out of order...

Here is the uke: In the background you can see another with the very exotic Hawaiian koa - king of musical instrument making woods!

SO how do you get an image up?

Anyone out there help me out?

Regards
Pete

 

[OPJ]

Hi Pete. I think your links were initially blocked because you'd only just joined the site and had made very few posts. It should be okay now though. It's basically a "Spam Trap", to prevent people from signing on and advertising their rubbish all over the place.

Looking at Interesting Timbers' site (they're on holiday at the moment), they appear to offer Laburnum, 2" thick. Trouble is, they're near Bath/Wells, perhaps a bit far for you to travel. I'm not sure if they'll consider delivering a small quantity either.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

[DaveL]

I'd prefer to resaw myself - see my video on resawing using a Startrite 301. There are some vids of my workshop practice on youtube which I note is blocked on this forum... why? at http://ukulelecosmos.com I have uploaded loads of vids and no-one has uploaded anything out of order...

Well Pete if they have never had anything out of order posted it is more luck than judgement. We have had all sorts junk posted, so we have a spam trap that stops you posting links to anything of the forum while you have very few posts to your name. This gives us MODs a change to step in and remove the nasty stuff before anyone get infected with anything on a rouge site that has been linked to. You are free to post links to your youtube videos, there are some other members who have videos on there and linked to them. You can also link pictures into your posts, if you look in the off topic board you will find instructions and if you have problems just ask and some one will help you out.

 

[Pete Howlett]

OPJ

I know interesting timbers well and have bought wood from them. While I was crawling around their timber stacks some months ago I couldn't find any laburnum - anyway, thanks for the heads up. Here is my resawing video:

 

[MIGNAL]

David Dyke has some British woods suitable for fingerboards. I'm fairly certain he mentioned Laburnum. The downside is that you will pay a premium because of the type of specialist supplier that he is.
How about quartered oak or Euro Walnut?

 

[Pete Howlett]

I use David as a last resort... The oak would be too insipid and walnut is too soft...

 

[Harbo]

I watched the re sawing video and it made me cringe - those fingers were awfully close to the blade. I kept thinking when is he going to reach for the push stick!!
Not a good advert for safe sawing.

Rod

 

[Pete Howlett]

The wood was 2" thick and perfectly safe sawing...at the end of the cut I pulled the wood through from behind the blade. In over 30 years using a bandsaw I have never had a single accident with this machine - now the bench saw... that is a different matter altogether!

 

[wizer]

Hi Pete, welcome to the forum. That's a lovely piece of wood you have in the vid. Oddly I was reading a Ukulele maker's site yesterday who'd made a homemade drum sander.

 

[OPJ]

Thanks for the link, Pete, I really like the video. I'll also have to spend some time going through the others you've uploaded. :wink:

Obviously, this method works well for you but, I share similar concerns with Rod, with regards to the lack of use of a push-stick at the end of the cut.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[dickm]

If you are in to resawing, have you thought of trying to source laburnum direct from garden contractors/tree surgeons? Laburnum are a common garden tree, especially in older urban gardens, but a lot of people seem to get worried about the toxic seed problem and get contractors in to fell them. Also with current planning guidance that classifies big gardens as brownfield sites for development, such trees are getting ripped out by developers.
I've got several that way, even felled a few myself 'cos they are not usually that big. Worth an advert in your local paper?

 

[Imperial]

These guys have had Laburnum listed, not sure if they will post to you, maybe good idea to give them a call or email them!

http://www.lanarkshirehardwoods.co.uk/

 

[Pete Howlett]

Now those home-made sanders are a Killer - I've got all the bits for making one but hope to get a Jet sander soon. Here is a cute little tool I sell to musical instrument makers for speed sanding:

It fits in a pedestal drill with a rise and fall table and sands down to .03mm. Great little tool - only £24.99 with self adhesive disks.

I'm sorry if it worries you that I don't use a push stick. My friend who was a timed served wood machinist tells of his dad free shaping cabriole legs on a french head spindle knife thrower; in beech at that! which is known to explode when you hit wavy grain... He never used a push stick, had all of his fingers and not a scar.

I think when you are using machinery it behoves you to show respect and care, not fear. Besides, as I said, you only see in the video the first slices. When I get down to 3/4" I am starting to use a push board - a wide L shaped paddle that keeps the work flat against the fence and advances the work forward through the last 4 inches. Also, when you are resawing you get a feel for certain types of timber. I certainly know that sawyers used to hate cutting horse chestnut (used for dart boards I believe along with poplar) because it would suddenly shoot forward into the path of the saw - spiral grain... you gotta watch it. Most of the woods I cut are exotics so the resins/oils in the wood tend to lubricate the saw and the hand fed motion is smooth. Burrs are fine also because the interlocked grain makes for a homogenous cut.

 

[MIGNAL]

The other alternative for fingerboards is to dye Oak. If you use iron acetate or ferrous sulphate on Oak you should obtain a reasonable approximation of Ebony.. I actually have some Oak soaking in a small vat of the stuff as a test piece for guitar fingerboards. The idea is to soak it for several weeks to try and get it to penetrate to about 0.5 mm - that will allow the board to be trued (after gluing) and should allow for some wear.
Dyeing under pressure is the obvious solution but potentially dangerous in any home made set up.

 

[ann]

Hi Pete,

I have just posted some green laburnum wood on the site.

It may not be of interest but feel free to look at this and contact me if it is of interest.

Ann

 

[wizer]

The entry level Jet drum sander is nearly £700. To my calculations you could make a DIY version for about £200. I think i'm going to look into it further. Fun little project.