Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Here are photographs of the fifth of six ukuleles that I've recently made.

I made the soundboard from the wood of a tree that had just been cut down in front of my son's house in Upwey, here in Victoria. The freshly cut wood looked absolutely gorgeous - a bright orangey-peach - and I decided that I needed to put some aside, without knowing what it was.

Years later, it had toned down to a somewhat nondescript brown, with some pattern in it, and I decided to use it because of the association with my son. I like to incorporate personal features into the instruments I make, because I don't sell them, and so please only myself and my whims.

If anyone can tell me what the wood is, I'd really appreciate an answer.

The back and sides are of Mountain Ash, cut locally (in Emerald, in the Dandenongs). At the moment in time that I was completing this instrument, I decided that it was time to learn French polishing, but I didn't want to jump in, boots and all, so I decided to do just the back and sides. I think it's reasonably successful, but in retrospect, I think I should have tried to buy a lighter shellac! I'm not unhappy with the orangey nature of the finish (because I still had orange on my mind with respect to the soundboard). Also, I know from past experience with Mountai Ash that it can be a bit bland, but that a little bit of added colour really brings out the fiddleback.

Other features include:

The fingerboard, bridge and headplate are of Ebony;
The bindings and back-stripe are of Indian Rosewood;
The neck is of Fijian Mahogany;
The rest of the instrument (other than back and sides) is finished with Rustins Danish Oil.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that for all the instruments, I make all the rope, and black-white-black etc purfling, and cut all the mother-of-pearl myself (not that there's much MOP in these instruments; only a bit in this and one other).

Frank.

That's a beautiful batch of work there Frank . Great attention to detail and a well harmonised overall aesthetic .
As to your mystery soundboard my best bet without any other prompts would be cherry .Cherry dries pretty poorly , if that's what it was you will have noticed a fair bit of degrade in drying before resawing your top out . Did you get any photos of the tree ? , even a photo of the blocks would be a help if the bark was on .
Pete

Hi Pete.

Thanks very much for your reply. I appreciate your taking the time to comment.

Nope; I'm sorry. It was a spontaneous thing. Someone (a building contractor, I guess) had just chopped a tree down on an "empty" block, in preparation to building a new house, and into circa 500 mm slabs (ready for disposal), and I managed to bundle one of these into the boot of my car. I didn't pay too much attention - except to the extraordinary orange-when-wet colour. When I got it home, I managed to slice it into a couple of workable boards, and left it to dry under my house for a few years. I do remember that the bark wasn't anything like an Australian eucalypt, or any other native tree with which I'm familiar. I thought idly at the time that it was probably an exotic species, and the words "Osage Orange" flitted through my mind - without me ever having ever seen either an Osage Orange tree, or any timber from it!

It certainly isn't cherry - with which I'm familiar, and have used on other instruments (a hurdy-gurdy and others) - and I do now kick myself for not having paid more attention. The wood is not at all hard or heavy - although the instrument sounds really sweet and quite loud - but we're not building a classical guitar here, and so all I really expected or wanted was something that sounded like a competent ukulele, which it does.

Kindest regards,

Frank.