Official Luthiers Forum!

For those that have used it what do you think??? I scored a really nice piece of QS padauk at my local hardwood dealer today...thought I might source a back and side to match..??!!

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MK5acoustics.com

Padauk is one of my very favorite woods for instruments. Very resonant, works easily. In my experience, it usually starts out very orange, but darkens over time and ends up a deep reddish brown. Very attractive to me.

The only downside in my book is the darned orange sawdust--If my cats are in the shop when I'm working padauk, I end up with little orange pawprints all through the house!

Dave

It can be one of the tougher woods to bend, serious springback sometimes .. and the pores are bloody HUGE .... but, if you want an orangy brown great sounding guitar , its the first choice !!!

and your shop will look like the paduak dust fairy paid a visit .... throwing that stuff everywhere ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Hi, besides of Wenge one the most underrated tonewoods out there, taps and rings like a bell, the dust is very poisionous, lots of allergic stuff inside. has to be bent very hot, but then suddenly it moves like butter in the sun. glueing no problem, sometimes available with nice contrasting sap, even spalted sap. colourwise peoples opinions drift appart, pores big, cheap wood, and the sanding dust / sawdust is kind of hard-core....easy to resaw, very stable in terms of movment, cracks quite easily, quite close related to the dalbergia familiy. looks boring. I like it.

I've only bent it once, the sides were pretty close to perfectly quartered & they bent very easily.

The pores are huge & it is prone to cracking.

I can't comment on the sound because the guitar still isn't done, I screwed up on the finish.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

2nd on the dust being highly irritating and allergic. I had a cabinet maker friend end up in the hospital when he swelled up after sanding Padauk. I'm always very careful about protection when sanding it. It usually ages to a beautiful deep umber. I've never seen it stay orange myself.

I built #3 out of padauk. It is no longer with us (insert mourning smilie face here). I used to to practice some repairs and test the strength of some joints.

The set I had was very hard to bend. Plaining is also very difficult due to interlocking grain. For this reason, thicknessing with a sander (and lots of dust collection) is recommended. I also stained my pants with the stuff. Turned a pair of khakis pink.

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
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If I had a resaw capable bandsaw I would buy more billets (there are sellers who sells them in Taiwan) and resaw them. Most of the ones I find are straight grained. They are very bright orange when first sawn or planed but turns really dark with age. Honestly I can't say I like the color of freshly cut Padauk because it just looks so plain but when it darkens, it becomes prettier.

They aren't too hard to plane, I used Wagner and normal #5 plane successfully.

Right now I can only resaw ukelele sets... if I had a 18" bandsaw I can buy the larger board (costs about $200 dollars) and get about 3 or 4 guitar sets out of it.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I just porefilled my first paduak dread. It bent with no problems but was quartersawn. It had a good tap tone but we'll see.

seems to be a few different opinions!!!

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MK5acoustics.com

It cracks, the dust gets everywhere, and it's a PITA to bend. But I loved the results. Great look and a real nice sizzle in the top end.

Steve

I'm using it for binding on my current build and I agree with everyone else. I must have cracked 5 pieces trying to make the tight bend for the sound hole. It scorches easy too. I also had issues with it kinking, but that may be mostly attributed to my bending technique. It looks great though, and I l actually like the bright orange dust, kinda cool. See my avatar pic, I used it for binding around the headstock horn.

One thing if you are using a steel bending pipe...

Cover it with aluminum foil when bending Padauk. For some reason the wood reacts with iron to turn it deep purple. That also means DO NOT rest a plane body on top of the wood for too long, or rest it on a cast iron table!

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

It does have it's problems.....!! BUT it does have it's rewards. Once the dirty work,filling,etc is over with and the guitar is finished,one has a very stable guitar generally with excellent tone. One of my favorite tonewoods.
Tom
P.S. Tai Fu: Have never run into that problem.

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

I bent my challenge uke side on a stainless steel pipe and it stained the pipe and the wood badly. When I placed aluminum foil over the pipe, it did not stain it at all.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Just did a quick check on Wikipedia which says "...Padauk wood is obtained from several species of Pterocarpus. All padauks are of African or Asian origin..."

I know that the set I bent was very easy & I don't doubt the differing experiences from other users. Is it safe to assume that we're dealing with different species that are all sold as Padauk?

If that's the case, the harder problem will be how to decipher which species are the good ones.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

The one I am using for the challenge uke was definitely Asian, because the seller only sells SE Asian woods.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Interesting. My supplier lists the stuff he carries as African Padauk. It is very hard and splintery, but bends well. I never had an issue with it getting stained from the hot pipe or cast iron. The dust from sanding is really, really bad - it is really fine, it gets everywhere, and it stains everything pink.

-jd