Camphor Burl

[ooten2]

I've searched and found a couple of posts about camphor burl wood being used as a top, usually on a bass. After researching, I've found that it is corrosive to ferrous metals (metals containing iron), that it has a minty, cinammon, vick's vapo-rub aroma (or stink, depending on your opinion!), and it's either incredibly beautiful, or nasty-ugly like human lung tissue. lol I've never worked with this wood before so I'm unfamiliar with it.

I recently picked up a couple of bookmatched sets of camphor burl that are about right for making guitar tops, one about 3/4" thick, and the other about 1/2" thick. I would LOVE to see these on a guitar or bass, but I'm concerned about the corrosion thing.

Also, the texture of this wood is rather sticky, and I'm debating about what kind of finish to use on this stuff.

Has anyone here built a top from camphor? If so, have you had a corrosion problem? How did you get around the corrosion problem? What kind of finish did you use and how did it turn out?

Thanks for any info on this!!

[Kevan]

I've not worked with camphor burl before, so I don't know about it's corrosive properties.

But I do know that this type of wood is considered "driftwood" over on Jemsite. Well, so says the site owner.

(damn that felt good)

[westhemann]

use all stainless and aluminum screws(just for what actually penetrates the finish...such as screws and bridge inserts.

and use a thick,durable finish

[Doc]

I built a blanket chest for a customer a long time ago using Camphor. Still holding up after one false start.

You may want to use plastic resin glue. Borden's makes it. It's a two part. One dark purple liquid and a tan powder. Also clean the jointing surfaces with alcohol or acetone before you glue. The oil in camphor can cause glue line failure, like teak. Learned that the hard way.

If you get any splinters in you dig 'em out right then. This goes for most of the tropical exotics. Camphor splinters get nasty really fast.

[ooten2]

I built a blanket chest for a customer a long time ago using Camphor. Still holding up after one false start.

You may want to use plastic resin glue. Borden's makes it. It's a two part. One dark purple liquid and a tan powder. Also clean the jointing surfaces with alcohol or acetone before you glue. The oil in camphor can cause glue line failure, like teak. Learned that the hard way.

If you get any splinters in you dig 'em out right then. This goes for most of the tropical exotics. Camphor splinters get nasty really fast.

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Thanks for all of the input. I've been brainstorming on this, and I'm thinking about using a neck-through construction, with a neck extension wide enough to accomodate the entire bridge and pup area, so the screws will sink into the neck wood (probably maple). I could use the camphor burl "driftwood!" for the body wings. I don't like the idea of splitting up the top, though, and the stainless or aluminum screws would allow for a solid top.

I'm also considering a control housing built from maple that would sink down into a cavity routered in the camphor. That way, no pots, switches, or shielding would contact the camphor. Hmm.. Still brainstorming.

Thanks for the glueing tips. I would have learned the hard way if you hadn't mentioned this.

Thanks for the safety tips, too. I think I'll get an environmental suit for this job!

[orgmorg]

Every now and then at the cabinet shop, we would get in some "lauan" plywood that had a couple camphor plies in it. The splinters do suck.

[ooten2]

I'm finding several websites from people building tops from camphor burl. Here's one I found today, and the picture of the burl looks very similar to mine.

http://www.gwbasses.com/projects/RussH_custom/index.shtml

I like this guy's website. I hope he puts pics up after he gets the camphor bass finished.