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It still hasn't become a big problem yet, but I can see it becoming one eventually. So far, the only uses I've found for them are making back reinforcement strips from the tops, bookmatched headplates, end grafts, and tiles for rosettes. That still leaves a lot of unused wood and I can't bring myself to toss it, at least not yet. Has anyone here come up with good uses for this leftover wood, or do you just toss it at some point?

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I give pieces of useful size to the guy that lasers my headplates, for his use in making jewelry, boxes, etc., and the rest I make myself chuck.

I used to get cut-offs from a friend that I used to rescale vintage straight razors.

Maybe you could find a knife maker / razor restorer to take them.

What you do is to store them for 10 to 15 years, until you don't know what you have or where it all is exactly. Then you do a huge clean up, find stuff you forgot you had make the hard call to toss them out or burn them and then wait 1 month or so until you will need some of it.
L.

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

I use the top cutoff to make sound hole donuts and back strip, I use the back cutoffs to make bridge patches, end wedges, heel caps. I will join the cutoff from around the waste to make peghead veneers. But yea I have a large box.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

I do the usual things, backstrips, head plates, tail grafts and so on. I keep the more interesting pieces that are large enough to do something with then gather up the small, skinny pieces once a year and use them for kindling in my wood stove.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I watched a video . Where one guitaramker had a box full of old scrap maple spruce eir, mahog , etc , he used these woods to match repairs on old instruments.It was a large wood box with a lid.

I have enough left over for the usual things including repair splints and so on. So now mine just go to the fire pit.

Check my brother's Etsy store for offcut ideas:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/513530531/natural-edge-ebony-and-koa-pendant

I burn them to start the BBQ grill.

I had a big box full of that stuff... I kept thinking I would use it for something... But I never did.

At some point - you just gotta let it go.

Yup. I keep enough variety and quantity to do all the things mentioned and burn the rest once or twice a year when I go camping. We call it FART (Fire ART). It is always the most expensive campfire of the year.

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"I've been had again"
Tim Benware
Creedmoor, NC

Recently I used some EIR offcuts for ukulele fingerboards. If you build smaller instruments you may find uses for some of the offcuts. Another use I've found is finish test pieces.

I'm awful I never toss anything away. I save it I'm always using it for something or other


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Glue them together to make a big pile, and then cut it and use it to make pretty tool handles!

A tonewood quilt?

I may bring my box to a local "Junk Days" we have locally, some sucker will drag it home.

Except for the Rosewood box. I use some bits, and I add some bits, but it never gets overfilled.

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Make ukuleles! My first one is called "Wood Pile".

I remember someone mentioned on a similar discussion years ago that they kept a box of offcuts, labeled "pieces too small to keep"...

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

That's hilarious.

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I think I'll contribute some of mine to the Seattle Luthiers Group's annual end-of-summer bonfire on the beach.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

If it's no use, it's useless. Throw it away/give it away/burn it. Space is worth more than scrap.

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nigel

http://www.theluthierblog.com

Consider the off cuts that a canoe shop generates and be thankful that guitars, and the resultant off cuts, are all so small. Keep a box for useful spare scrap that will suffice for your needs , anything that doesn't fit is scrap. Unless its better than the scraps that are already in your box.

I keep the bigger stuff and the more interesting pieces. From everything else I extract its thermal potential.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Luxury kindling.

Or find someone who makes much smaller things like jewelry.

I've given my neighbour at least 400lbs of QS white oak scrap from the kitchen I'm working on, with soft maple scap coming. There was some pretty nice pieces, 10"-20" long, but I'd be swimming in scrap if I kept them. I wish he'd take the 35+ bags shavings, as well!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

As a repair person, that does not (yet) build, I could use a small box of off cuts.
If anyone in the So California area has some they want to get rid of, let me know.
If anyone further away is desperate to get rid of a small box of pieces, I will send you money for shipping.
Dave