a sort of showcase with pics for high grade raw woods

[El Snazzo]

Hi

Perhaps stupid or too time-consuming :  a sort of showcase with pics for high grade woods.
a sort of extension of the hand-pick option for those who have special looking needs ?

Great idea, especially for the exotic tops and high grade woods.

 

[simple]

I think Brian May used Red Oak for his Red Special guitar. I wonder why it's not used by more people too???

I asked Ken Warmoth and he had this to say about Oak:
White Oak and Red Oak have a dynamic cell structure that is either open or shut depending on what time of year it's cut. It feels like Hard Ash to work with and likely produces a similar tone. If you get stuck with a piece when the cell structure is open, it feels rough even after sanded.

Maybe this reason and the fact that it's heavy are reasons we don't see it much in the musical instrument industry.

 

[Vennegaard]

I would love to make the trick with a 1-piece swamp ash body for a '54 P-Bass and a highly flamed matching neck  :hello2:

 

[-CB-]

When I was in the millshop, I dunno... I cut a LOT... 10's of 1000's of feet of red and white oak into tongue and groove.  Did ash too... but mostly that was custom items, not flooring.

NOTHING wears ya knives faster than red oak, except for maybe teak.  Teak... you can sometimes see sparks fly from the knives, with the clay in it. 

If you've ever cut oak vs ash.... it might "feel the same" but it doesn't "cut the same".  Ash cuts fairly easily.  Oak's a real mother at times.

Thanks for the open/closed cell thing.  I noticed that some oak didn't ever feel smooth, and I'm guessing thats why.  I thought it had to do with maybe being just ever so slightly quarter sawn or something, but... seems more probably that it was the structure of the wood, now that I hear that.

To me ash (or what we had) seemed to cut like black walnut.  Mahogany was easy to work with. 

Crap... now I remember... Belaying pins.  I made about 200 belaying pins for a replica pirate ship (was a bar in a local hotel).  We also turned two ash masts and crossarms... and ash railing.  The floor was white oak.  The bar... trying to remember... probably oak.  Those pins were about an inch in diameter at the shaft and about 2 inches at the knob and handle.  You'd get em down to close to an inch and ... about one in ten would just shatter unexpectedly.  Fun !