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| Sycamore or american buttonwood http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=34391 |
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| Author: | ernie [ Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:18 am ] |
| Post subject: | Sycamore or american buttonwood |
Anyone out there using this material other than guitar backs e.g violin family instruments ,The reason I ask , is a local sawyer who cuts 1/4 sawn large pieces of sycamore. Or other instruments?? |
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| Author: | Rick Davis [ Tue Nov 29, 2011 2:54 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sycamore or american buttonwood |
The question's a little obscure but I think you're asking if anyone uses or has used Amer. sycamore for violin-family instruments. No. There are some 19th-century fiddles made with sycamore but they're not exactly, ah, concert-quality. Maybe not even barn-dance quality. Overall, sycamore may look like maple (and be confused with English sycamore, which is a maple) but it's significantly lower density and stiffness. Most sycamore is close to cardboard though there are some denser, stiffer pieces with numbers closer to mahogany. |
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| Author: | ernie [ Tue Nov 29, 2011 8:16 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sycamore or american buttonwood |
Thanks rick .I have access to a lot of 1/4 sawn syc, it/s not all cardboard . Makes a nice uke too. Where did you get the info on sycamore vlns not being viable ?? just wondering |
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| Author: | Rick Davis [ Wed Nov 30, 2011 2:03 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sycamore or american buttonwood |
I did a lot of research on sycamore about 16 years ago when I happened on a nice stash of quartered, wavy, hard and stiff wood. (I made at least 10 sycamore guitars in the following few years.) I don't now recall where I came on the reference to folk violins but it came from that research. The way I recall it, the author was highly dismissive of them but that could easily be the builders' fault rather than the wood's. On the other hand, it isn't maple despite the appearance. |
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| Author: | ernie [ Wed Nov 30, 2011 2:38 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Sycamore or american buttonwood |
Thanks for sharing the info rick I appreciate your input. I have a partly carved sycamore viola back, that I intend to complete one day.There is another wood here , called silver maple, similiar to bigleaf maple , but white, with a lot of silver/gray streaking that I processed , it was about 24 in round log. |
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