Koa grades

Depends on the tree... all of the figured koa I have is perfectly quartered and the silk in the quartered Cuban boards I have is to die for... I have some amazing fiddleback mahogany again on the perfect quarter, some bear claw figure in quartered cherry and some incredible curl in quartered walnut. Now my maples are slab sawn and present great figure - quilted, bubbly and of course birdseye. But my fiddleback sycamore is again, on the perfect quarter. However my totally unstable masur birch is all over the place as is my yew tree stock. Oh and that incredibly underated fiddleback makore I have is perfectly quartered so I am not sure what you are trying to say to us Ron. Because wood is organic it can be like Bart Potter's koa on steroids (see Jorma's article above) or as sluggish as a drunk on frat night. It is wonderful because it is full of surprises.

I also don't think you can say 'the best tonewood...', and then qualify it; not really...

As always this is a pegoritive business ain't it?

Ukantor,

You are correct. I grade according to grain straightness, density, and degree of quartersawn first. Figure and unique grain pattern are secondary. If a wood appears to be acoustically and structurally sound and also has a good degree of figure, I'll reserve it in my custom pile. These boards are rare, having to meet a lot of criteria, and I'm super picky.

I don't pull boards just because they're curly. If the lumber doesn't meet my standards of grading, I put them on the side and clear them out to a local box maker. They aren't 'bad' by any means, just not something I would use in a musical instrument. The only pieces I do keep, if they don't seem like good instrument wood, are the insanely curly or unique ones. I put them on the side for inlays, accent work, etc.

This is why I don't like the A grading scale that was introduced. I have a lot of people that bring me their own sets, which they bought as 4A or 5A master grade, blah, blah. About half the time, the wood is either barely quartersawn or has very short choppy grain with runout. It's definitely curly according to the A system, but hardly what I would consider good tonewood.

Wood is an interesting medium, though. I have a very good general idea of how a board will sound when the instrument is finished, but it's kind of like predicting the weather. Clouds and gray sky tell you that it's probably going to rain, but you never really know exactly when or how much. Then, there's the variable of me, the builder. Despite tools like surface sanders and calipers, I can never build two ukes exactly the same.

KoAloha Paul said:-

"I grade according to grain straightness, density, and degree of quartersawn first. Figure and unique grain pattern are secondary."

I guess this is what makes the difference between a fine musical instrument and a pretty ukulele shaped object.

Ukantor.

koalohapaul said:

I have a very good general idea of how a board will sound when the instrument is finished, but it's kind of like predicting the weather. Clouds and gray sky tell you that it's probably going to rain, but you never really know exactly when or how much.

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Good analogy Paul.

Pete Howlett said:

Depends on the tree...

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:agree: The flamed maple I was talking about has about 6-7 degrees of slant in the grain (off the perfect quarter) and the flame is really unbeatable top-grade fiddleback quality.

Go figure.

ukantor said:

I guess this is what makes the difference between a fine musical instrument and a pretty ukulele shaped object.

Ukantor.

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That's it in a nutshell.

Pete Howlett said:

I also don't think you can say 'the best tonewood...', and then qualify it; not really...

As always this is a pegoritive business ain't it?

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I did qualify it by saying "Generally Speaking" as in "Not Absolute". I guess you missed that because you have the flu.

I looked up pergoritive and couldn't find it so I don't know what you mean.

And that's the problem - there is no general rule with wood. It's Paul's cloudy day analogy...

Pete Howlett said:

And that's the problem - there is no general rule with wood. It's Paul's cloudy day analogy...

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Give it a break

Pete Howlett said:

As always this is a pegoritive business ain't it?

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Pete, I thought you meant to write pejorative. If so, I'm still not sure what you mean by this being a pejorative business.

???

I think he meant controversial, opinionated, confrontational, infuriating, quixotic, outspoken..............................................

Ukantor.