What's happening in your shed?

Yesterday I received this beautiful piece of locally harvested American Sycamore from a local sawyer, as well as plans for a Kasha-braced baritone ukulele from Hana Lima ‘Ia in Hawaii. This instrument is going to be built from locally grown and harvested woods: Sycamore for the entire body, Cherry for the neck, and Black Walnut for the bindings, end graft, and peghead veneer. I’m still searching for a suitable locally grown wood for the fretboard and bridge. My first choice would be Persimmon, but I may have to use Hickory if I can’t find the Persimmon.
 

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New "old" shape. Template and mold based on a photo of an Anahu Flower of Hawaii early soprano.
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Dom, That's a fine looking instrument. You must be very pleased with it.

John Colter
 
Dom, That's a fine looking instrument. You must be very pleased with it.

John Colter

Thanks, John. Very happy with it. It sounds great with plenty of volume and sustain. Boxing it up today for shipping tomorrow.

I have 4 more instruments in the works but I am going to finish up a 12" disc sander that I am working on first.
 
Funny. I thought this was a question, but I couldn't see what it was referring to. Now I understand. The size of the pegs didn't matter.

Well I did want to know but there are other mysteries in life that are more important.
 
A local tonewood supplier just shipped me a few fretboard blanks cut from quartersawn Osage Orange. If I'm not mistaken, it's the hardest wood in North America, with a Janka rating of 2,620. I've been collecting locally grown and harvested woods to use in my next project, a Kasha baritone uke. Even the Red Spruce for the braces comes from right here in the mountains of my home state.
 
Sorry Printer2, I didn't see your question when I was here last.
The tuners are the 7.5mm pegheds. I got them from Peter Hurney at Pohaku Ukuleles.

See, I was mistaken. I thought they we actually carved pegs. I was hoping to make an instrument with a set of ebony ones and was just wondering what size I could get away with.
 
Yes if you get a load of worm holes it becomes a feature...Just get one and its an annoying flaw. :(

Oh, this plank is definitely wormy. Black epoxy is going to be my friend.

My stack of locally harvested Osage Orange fretboard blanks arrived this morning. I ran one through the sander to remove the saw marks. It's going to make an interesting looking fretboard.

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We're now getting to the type of weather where I can only work in the garage until about noon, as it gets quite hot in there in the afternoon. Here's where I stopped today, with the 100+ year old wormy American Chestnut baritone uke neck blank glued and checked for squareness, the Osage Orange fretboard blank sanded to thickness and slotted, the Osage Orange bridge blank sanded to thickness, and the Red Spruce transverse braces sanded to thickness and ripped to a bit more than the correct height on the band saw, ready for shaping and gluing.

I've already decided I will be applying Tung Oil (the real stuff, not Formby's) to the Osage Orange fretboard and bridge. I have a scrap piece of the O.O. to which I've applied 6 coats of Tung Oil, and the grain has really popped, compared to the bare wood.

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I am somewhat familiar with osage orange wood as it used to grow where I lived. I used it as foundation supports for my house because it is hard and impervious to rot. Worked great. One note of caution: It can bleed that red sap if not fully cured. Definitely do not have to worry about fretboard wear with that stuff. Hard as nails.
 
A local tonewood supplier just shipped me a few fretboard blanks cut from quartersawn Osage Orange. If I'm not mistaken, it's the hardest wood in North America, with a Janka rating of 2,620. I've been collecting locally grown and harvested woods to use in my next project, a Kasha baritone uke. Even the Red Spruce for the braces comes from right here in the mountains of my home state.


I've been working with a bit of desert ironwood from Arizona, Janka hardness of 3260. I don't know whether that's the hardest or not. https://www.wood-database.com/desert-ironwood/
 
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