Reclaimed Teardrop From a Redwood Picnic Table

Tukanu

Handmade 2B Hand Played
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This is going to be an interesting one-off project:

My customer has some redwood from an old picnic table that his grandfather built in the early 1960’s.
The piece he sent me has some really tight vertical grain, and will make a great sounding soprano.
We are going with a teardrop soprano body and a concert scale neck.
The ukulele will be all-redwood; top, back, sides, and neck. The neck will have a walnut centerpiece for stiffness. All pieces were cut from the same board, and you know how that improves the tone.
 

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Looks like a nice piece of wood! I've just finished a few small scale guitars and two ukes with redwood tops, they sound great. I'm interested to hear how you do bending it. To me it feels like a very brittle wood, at least when it's well-aged. Maybe that's just been the pieces I have though.
 
A teardrop will have only a one-way bend, so it should go okay. However the grain is quarter sawn, so it it will have to go slow. I have a piece of flat sawn as my plan B. I hope to be bending tomorrow. Wish me luck.
 
I had no trouble bending the redwood sides on this uke made from reclaimed wood. There was maybe a little more springback, but reheating the wood took care of that. Good luck!
 

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A big thank you to the community for the cautions on bending old wood. I wasn't even thinking about the fact that the wood had become brittle with age. But I should have realized that old wood (like old builders) become more brittle as time goes on!
Anyway, I thinned the sides to about 1/16" and made the the bends in 3 or 4 passes over the hot pipe.
As you can see, the bend was not too severe...not like the waist of a soprano.
Thanks again.
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Starting to look like a ukulele.
I am using a lot of claro walnut for accent and strength. Since claro is a Pacific wood, like redwood, they go together well.
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That is looking great! I love the stripe on the neck. Claro does work wonderfully with redwood, that's for sure.
 
Construction is pretty much done...just waiting on some parts.
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Any difficulties in the process? It looks lovely. I can't wait to see the finished product.
 
Looking good! :cheers:
 
Any difficulties in the process? It looks lovely. I can't wait to see the finished product.

No construction problems. The wood was very cooperative. It is soooo soft, I needed to be extra careful.
 
When I work with cedar and redwoods I have to make sure my fingernails are trimmed down close. Really soft
 
It's a beautiful wood with such a sweet tone though, worth it in the end!
 
I just finished this special little redwood ukulele.
One of the things that interests me about working with reclaimed wood is that you are giving it a third life. About a 1,000 years ago this redwood sprung up from the ground and started its first life as a tree. For a 1,000 years it provided food and shelter to countless animals, not to mention cleaning the air. In its second life it was fashioned into a picnic table, and saw a 1,000 hot dogs and burgers. It took on a patina from spilled ketchup, mustard, and a constant soaking of coke and kool-aid. Now in its third life it is ready for 1,000 songs. Maybe in the future it will have a forth life...like maybe a bird house?
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Thanks David. Really excited to give "Bob" (grandfather's name) a go!
 
I see that you use a Spanish heel joint on your teardrop. It certainly makes for a tight, gapless joint. The only drawback I personally see with that, is the neck can get in the way for the rest of the build. On the other hand, I have to spend a lot of time getting a tight fit with my butt join, bolt on method! However, my teardrops are based on the vintage Favilla design, which appears to have a butt joint.
Bob
 

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I see that you use a Spanish heel joint on your teardrop. It certainly makes for a tight, gapless joint. The only drawback I personally see with that, is the neck can get in the way for the rest of the build. On the other hand, I have to spend a lot of time getting a tight fit with my butt join, bolt on method! However, my teardrops are based on the vintage Favilla design, which appears to have a butt joint.
Bob

Right, the neck does get in the way, especially when adding edgebinding. The acoustic theory is that the Spanish heel does a better job of transferring string energy to the body from neck. The other advantage is that there is not chance for neck separation.
 
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