Any of these timbers suitable for builds?

[dougmurray85]

This list is from the Forest Stewardship Council of Australia

Are any of them suitable for instrument building?

Acacia mangium (Black Wattle)
Acacia obliquinervia (Mountain Hickory Wattle)
Acacia dealbata (Silver Wattle)
Corymbia maculata (Spotted Gum)
Eucalyptus cypellocarpa (Mountain Grey Gum)
Eucalyptus dalrympleana (White Mountain Gum)
Eucalyptus fastigata (Brown Barrel, Cut-Tail)
Eucalyptus globulus (Blue Gum)
Eucalyptus grandis (Flooded gum, Rose gum)
Eucalyptus oblique (Messmate)
Eucalyptus paniculata (Grey Ironbark)
Eucalyptus regnans (Victorian Mountain Ash)
Eucalyptus saligna (Sydney Blue Gum)
Eucalyptus sieberi (Silvertop Ash)
Eucalyptus tereticornis (Forest Red Gum and others)
Eucalyptus viminalis (White Gum, Ribbon Gum)
Pinus radiata (Radiata Pine)

[needsmorecowbel]

Vic mountain ash is the standout of that list personally.

[nnickusa]

I've seen some nice silver wattle.

[Peter Young]

Hello

The Albany lads have made quite a few instruments using eucalyptus sp.

Both Maurice and I have used blue gum and I have also used Sydney sugar gum and wando AKA (in the west) white gum.
So many species ... easy to get them confused. I stick to the local names ...

Blue gum.jpg (121.73 KiB) Viewed 18645 times

Need sharp tools ... except for the wando, the timber has little tap tone but ends up making good sounding guitars.
All the instruments pictured are 3/4 dreadnaughts.

I think maurice tried WA red gum (marri) but found it hard to bend ...

The inimitable Tim S has some silver wattle but not sure if anyone has used it yet.

Regards Peter

[Wayde Christie]

Doug there's a whole forum on here dedicated to Aussie tonewoods - it's worth a look: viewforum.php?f=9

[dougmurray85]

Cheers Wade

I asked about these woods as they all have certified sustainable plantations and are not harvested from old growth forests.

And @Peter: Any experience with these woods in an electric?

[Peter Young]

Hello Wade

Only had electric experience with sheoak.

Peter

[dougmurray85]

According to the tone wood forum mentioned by Wade there is only the aforementioned Silver Wattle and Mountain Ash.

Hopefully one the list I posted is a suitable fretboard as the mountain Ash is looking like the goer for the neck and body.

[Bob Connor]

None of those timbers would be suitable for a fingerboard. They're all too soft.

If you want something endemic I'd suggest Mulga, Gidgee, Queensland Ironwood, Jarrah, Cooktown Ironwood or one of the desert Acacias, most of which are much harder and denser than ebony.

Regards

[dougmurray85]

Sustainable is my main concern. These just happen to be endemic species.

[dougmurray85]

Not the most reliable source, but good enough: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janka_hardness_test

According to Wikipedia Eucalyptus paniculata (Grey Ironbark) is even harder than ebony.

[curly]

I'd like to add A bit of a clarification regarding FSC certification and timber ethics . FSC is largely concerned with chain of custody , that is to say tracking timber through it's harvest from a known certified source and it's processing and marketing as such . It is wrong to assume that the certification also means that the timber is necessarily plantation grown . FSC timbers can be from native managed forests and even old growth ( in a controlled fashion ) .
From the list of species given , in my experience I would say few , if any are plantation grown . They will be harvested from managed native forests .

To be clear , I'm not saying that's a bad or necessarily unethical thing , after all my own career is in specialty timber harvesting . It's encouraging to see other people placing a priority on their timber sources . Timber ethics is an area with many shades of grey .

As an exercise in knowing what alternative timbers are useable as tonewoods a really great education can be gotten by cross referencing known timbers such as the spruces , maples , ebonies , rosewoods and such with the native species you are looking at . Wood in Australia by Keith Bootle is the best starting point for this . At the back of the book there is a list of technical data . Start by looking up a single species of a known tonewood . The main data you are looking at are density ( weight ) , stiffness ( modulus of elasticity ) and movement in service ( expressed as a percentage ) . It all seems pretty confusing as banks of numbers but simplifying it back helps . Weight is self explanatory . In MOE the higher the number the stiffer the timber . In movement stats the higher the two numbers the more movement it has in drying . The radial and tangential values given for movement are of very little value except as a basic guide for makers , they are really only relevant in milling and drying timber.
After recording the relevant numbers for your known timbers you then simply cross reference them against your prospective replacements . Of course there are refinements on the method as you really hone in but that's the basics of it .
All the best .
Pete

[dougmurray85]

Cheers for the info Pete.

To be clear I'm not looking for timbers to replace the standard go to species. I just want them to be ethically sourced and preferably from a plantation, not from old growth. I want them to be useable as timber for an electric body, neck and fretboard. Price is significantly more important than tone.

[ozwood]

Hi Doug,

Maybe Contact the John Buckham Aka the Woodrat , I know he often get's his timber from fallen trees...... and ummm antiques .

He maybe able to supply you with some, from such a tree, I know Steve Aka Stopper also is partial to harvesting from fallen trees also I have some magnificent Blackwood from a Fallen tree, from a farm in the Dorrigo region.... can't get more sustainable than a tree that would have become firewood.

Failing that LMI has some FSC woods listed, not native to Australia though.

Cheers,

[dougmurray85]

Believe it or not my old man has a portable sawmill on his farm outside of Wingham on the Mid-North coast of NSW.

I'm checking out the commercial stuff first as there is a problem with twisting when a portable saw is used and I don't know if there's anything seasoned and of the needed thicknesses for a guitar build.