edslides Posted February 14, 2006 Report Share Posted February 14, 2006 my name is barefoot ed the other day i was given 5 3/4x 8x10 foot pieces of wood which was once a pallet used to ship a large machine from the phillipines to texas. it then sat in the texas weather for two or three years. it appears to be a VERY hard variety of mahogany with some interesting grain anomalies. it is unusually reddish with yellow streaks when wet, and is so dense that water doesnt seem to penetrate it. can this be cosidered to be sufficiently air dried to use as guitar wood? in all this time it has not bowed, warped or twisted. it dulls saw blades. its tap tone seems to sustain. could this be too hard? copy/paste this link http://photobucket.com/albums/f302/edslide...¤t=000_0526.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orgmorg Posted February 14, 2006 Report Share Posted February 14, 2006 I wouldn't worry about it being too hard, but I have learned the hard way not to use wood that has been out in the elements for a long time for any purpose where I dont want to see cracks. It may be plenty dry now, but it has probably undergone countless changes in temperature and humidity, which has done it no good. I have a bunch of mahogany body blanks, which were surplus from Gibson back around 1970 or so. They sat in somebody's barn for a long time until I bought them from him for 5 bucks apiece, thinking I was getting an awesome deal. When I finally got to using them, they read 8% moisture content on my meter. The ends were cracked a little, but once I cut my body out, there was no sign of cracking whatsoever in it. When my shop gets below 30% humidity, though, the endgrain gets full of cracks, causing a stream of foul language to issue from my throat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edslides Posted February 14, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2006 I wouldn't worry about it being too hard, but I have learned the hard way not to use wood that has been out in the elements for a long time for any purpose where I dont want to see cracks. It may be plenty dry now, but it has probably undergone countless changes in temperature and humidity, which has done it no good. I have a bunch of mahogany body blanks, which were surplus from Gibson back around 1970 or so. They sat in somebody's barn for a long time until I bought them from him for 5 bucks apiece, thinking I was getting an awesome deal. When I finally got to using them, they read 8% moisture content on my meter. The ends were cracked a little, but once I cut my body out, there was no sign of cracking whatsoever in it. When my shop gets below 30% humidity, though, the endgrain gets full of cracks, causing a stream of foul language to issue from my throat. thanx. this might be a good time to consider using it to build my coffin case,an idea ive had for years.ive got a great pic of a coffin from the 1800s, red satin lining and all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted February 14, 2006 Report Share Posted February 14, 2006 I used pine to build my rectangular case. It's about as cheap as wood comes and does the job perfectly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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