Bird's eye maple
Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2017 12:58 pm
A friend of my wife's was over the other day and I happened to show him my personal archtop that I made a few years ago. He's a wood guy, his family have been in the lumber and building business around our town for well over a hundred years, and he was very impressed. He said "come by my place when you have a few minutes, I have something you might like". Then he upped the ante and said, "you and your wife come by, we'll have some 18 year old single malt scotch, and we'll look at some maple I have in my attic that you might be able to use" So we went by and he showed me some of the most extravagantly figured bird's eye maple I have ever seen. 16 foot long 6/4 by 12' boards of it, along with some smaller 4/4 by 4 and 5" boards. It's a stash from the last bird's eye log he sawed just before his old sawmill burnt down in 1972, it's been in the second floor loft of his workshop for 45 years, and he releases a bit of it from time to time for special projects. He offered as much as I wanted, I took 48" of the 6/4 by 12 board, and 14 linear feet of the 4/4 4" wide boards, enough for an archtop back set, a neck or two, and a bunch of sides or fretboards. All he said he wanted was to see it turn into something worthwhile, so I have to make a worthwhile guitar out of it.
