Extreme Closeups of the Cairns Ukulele Build

[Allen]

Kevin, who was one of the Cairns Uke Build Class of 2012 works for James Cook Uni, and just so happens to have access to some electron microscopes. After the class he took some samples of all the components we used in building this years instrument so he could have a really good look at them.

He tells me that a microscope was rebuilt and needed to be tested out, so now was a perfect time to look at the samples. I find them to be totally amazing.

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Brazilian Mahogany - Body and Neck

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Western Red Cedar - Sound Board

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Coastal Banksia - Peg Head Overlay

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Ironwood - Fret Board and Bridge

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Bone - Nut and Saddle

[Nick]

Great pics Allen, certainly makes you drop your jaw at the complex & minute detail nature does all the time that we can only dream to recreate!
Thanks for posting

[Kim]

Terrible runout in the coastal banksia Allen but that cedar looks to be luvley stuff

The microbial world of lutherie is one we seldom see and indeed it is totally amazing.

Cheers

Kim

[woodrat]

Thank You Allen for posting.....They are amazing pictures!

John

[matthew]

nice pics.

You've got a bit of pore-filling ahead of you I see.

[charangohabsburg]

Very nice pictures Kevin, thank you Allen for posting them.

Terrible runout in the coastal banksia Allen but that cedar looks to be luvley stuff

Kim, I think these are two different views: the Costal Blanksia picture shows how (in a tangential cut) tracheids find their way around two medullary rays (which of course could be called some kind of "locally limited runout"), while I reckon the red cedar picture shows some cell pitting in a radial cut where at this enormous magnification it is impossible to say if there is heaps of runout present or none at all.

@ Matthew: I can't see a single pore in the pictures above, wood cells are just that rough!

[Dave Stewart]

Is that before or after using the "tonerite". (Actually, that's a couple of closeups I'd LOVE to see!)

[J.F. Custom]

Amazing stuff.

Out of interest, were these 'rough sawn/unrefined' pieces, or finish sanded/scraped - but without a finish applied?

Jeremy.

[Dominic]

Looks like you need to sharpen up your planes a bit.

[Allen]

Sorry Guys, can't help you with anything other than what I told you. I'll try and get Kevin to chime in. I think he's joined the forum, but didn't know how to post the pictures himself.

[lauburu]

Stunning work, Kevin. Thanks for showing us a different dimension. It helps to underscore why luthiery is so complex.
Thanks for posting the pics Allen.

[Kev3]

Hi everyone,
.... and thanks to Allen for introducing me to the members of the forum. Given the fact that I'm only just about to embark on my first "solo" build, I haven't much to contribute here and certainly wouldn't class myself as a luthier ! But one of the many hats I wear at work is electron microscopist, and the results of that appear to be somewhat of interest. So, to try to answer some of the questions, comments.....
The images were taken of small off-cuts etc from the Cairns build run by Allen and Micheal mid this year. Most of the material had been thicknessed and cut to close to final dimension, so there was not much scientific rigour in what I kept to look at in terms of specific orientation to grain etc. Mostly what you see are broken / torn surfaces - at this scale even the sharpest blade will leave tool marks and will often smear the features like cell structure at surface (particularly things like the bone). Once chopped up to ca. a couple of mm they were mounted on a small sample platform for easier handling and then gold coated (how about that for a different kind of finish to tone wood!). After that I simply collected a few images that looked visually pleasing. So again no real plan to document them thoroughly.
Might be fun to do so in the future though, maybe compare planed surfaces to sandpaper, extremes of softwood to hardwood......
Anyway, the images were more for fun than anything else. But they put a different spin on photos of a build - and remind us that there are different scales at which to view the world, a tree tens of metres in height needs structural fibres and "plumbing" on the micron scale and bio-chem reactions at the molecular level to do its thing. Miracle it all works and holds up really.
Glad you liked the images. Maybe I'll add more in the future.

Kevin

[Localele]

Hi Kevin, It might be interesting to have a closeup of both the blade that did the finishing and the finish it left on the timber surface.
Don't take this too personally but of course with my ridiculously sharp tools it may not be possible to see the tool marks with the instruments you have on hand.

[charangohabsburg]

Hi Kevin, I was about to ask the same as Micheal, but expecting something slightly different than he does...

It would be great if you could get the possibility to take some SEM photographs of a ridiculously sharp blade sharpened by Micheal, and a specimen of wood planed by him. It would be really revealing I think.

[Kev3]

Well now Micheal, I can do that. All I need is an example or two of your ridiculously sharp blades !
..... maybe still attached to the sound hole / rosette cutter ?