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Hi all! sorry, the "please" part didn´t fit in the title... still, i´ll re-sate it: please.

In one of my wood-hunting excursions, it just happened i came across a very fine, straight cocobolo (dalbergia retusa) log with 80 kgs (around 175 pounds, IIRC), a smaller, but still usable, half-log of kingwood (dalbergia cearensis) and some very nice and figured macassar ebony boards (diospyros celebica), all just waiting to be picked up from a local sawmill and i am currently pondering if i should buy some of it or not.

now, this is where some of you might be able to help me. Since i´m a newbie in this things, i was wondering what are people´s opinions on the workability of these woods, and if you feel it is worth to build a guitar from them (backs and sides) - even if at a later, more mature, guitarbuilding stage of mine. the looks on the woods is just stunning, though...

thanks in advance,
Miguel.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

A log of kingwood big enough for two piece backs is extremely rare. I would be most excited by that one, but all are usable lutherie woods.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

So very true and important. Even with a billet I spend about an hour laying out all my cuts to get the very most I can out of it. Waste not, want not.

You need to pay attention to grain direction. Bring a measuring tape, scraper (or small plane) and small circular saw to see what happening at the end grain and on the surface. Most lumberyards will let you cut a sliver from the end grain and let you scrape the oxidised surface to see what's happening. Quartersawn is an absolute must, of course, but depending on the piece, flat or rift sawn can be OK. Personally I wouldn't use highly figured Macassar ebony for fretboards, but it's handsome for back, sides, bridges, headplates and so on. Look for checks, cracks and so on and how it fits with your templates. Cocobolo is great, as noted by Filippo, some people are highly allergic. Kingwood is handsome, although very heavy, and was used as multiple piece backs on vihuelas and Baroque guitars. It's incredibly rare to see trees large enough for guitars, but there is nothing wrong with 4 or 6 piece backs. It also can be used as fretboards, bridges, headplates, bindings etc. I went through a whole pile of kingwood a few months back without seeing anything usable for guitars, either too small, or too many cracks.
Here's a handsome vihuela built by Alexander Batov with kingwood sides and coco back:

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Kingwood is too small and rare a tree to become common on the market. However the wood is top grade. I bought a finely grained square from which I extracted several bridges. Very heavy (almost like ebony) good ping (but more like Indian, not Madagascar or Brazilian) and glassy fine texture. The color is similar to Honduras or the lighter Madagascar rosewoods. According to Romanillos, the earliest attributed Spanish guitar is from mid 1600's and it was made with kingwood.

Edit: Laurent beat me to it. Awesome instrument there!

Here is a crappy photo showing a few typical Madagascar pieces on the left, my Kingwood square leftover and a bridge in the middle (wiped with shellac which changes the tones from purple-pinkish-brick to reddish-brown) and on the right 3 Rio bridges.

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Build log

Can only really talk of Macassar Ebony (Coco sets still on the shelf for later use) - I was lucky to to have a really nice set pretty much Qsawn and with an angled 'flame' - stunning. Heavy and blunts tools after 5 strokes of a decent plane! But love the deep woody tone it seems to give - paired with a nice 'white' old German Spruce top' looks stunning under a nitro finish too... I would love to get some more but its getting v pricey... if quater sawn and large enough definitely try and get some B+S sets rather than just fingerboards.

ok, thanks for the replies! it will take some time to read thoroughly.
pertinent questions.
1) correct, no way of knowing. i have to take the plunge if i want to find out.
2) I´m still to know, hopefully by next week someone will tell me the price.
3) my level is absolute novice. still, i know someone that will - eventually - be able to help me with that. he´s just a bit difficult to get hold of. (hence me asking here). but it´s a nice point to make. still, i believe it will be cheaper than buying individual sets from the web, without seeing them previously (there are no tonewood dealers in Portugal, where i live).
on the topic "allergy", that falls within my professional realm, so that´s the only item that i´m - more or less - prepared to deal with. still, good to know and thanks for mentioning it.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

For the most part wood dust doesn't cause me any difficulty. Macassar is like being tear gassed. Other have that reaction to cocobolo. So if you are planing on reducing the wood yourself, you might want to buy small pieces and give it a try firts.

At affordable prices, those are great woods, fill the house. Just be very careful about condition. It is very easy to get all excited about wood finds on the way in, and then when you get around to processing the wood, everything is a little narrow or short on yield, and you can't really get anything out of the logs after all. I do a lot of chainsaw milling, and it is amazing how hard it can be to find really clear sections with high yield. A knot here, a split there, and what looks like a huge expanse of perfect wood can turn out to be less of a bargain, and that applies when the cost of the wood is basically free, but he labour certainly isn't.

this is precisely where things can go wrong. i´m too green for this, got to look further into it, see how i can check for the grain direction - thanks for mentioning. but, OTOH, being a log (i hope the name is right, i´m talking of the entire tree trunk, minus the bark - for cocobolo), it can´t go too wrong, right (apart from price)? there´s got to be a way of getting at least some nice Qsawn wood from there.

anyway, i´m thinking that maybe i´m getting intoxicated with the idea of having found such noble wood. maybe a reality check is in order.

thanks again all for chiming in.

cheers,
Miguel.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes