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Hi,
My short story is I've built four guitars and a Ukulele, so not too much experience with guitar building.
When chatting with an older wood turner with some un-used wood he just wanted to have a good home. He gifted me with quite a nice amount of fine wood (mostly mahogany). The story is his brother-in-law would dumpster dive at a lumber yard in the seventies and early eighties who was a supplier for Martin guitars. Looking at the notations on some of the wood, it seems likely. In the stack of good fortune i found what I'm pretty certain is a smallish Brazilian board 7 x 27 x 1" (a full 4/4)
Im thinking of a parlor size guitar something like a 0 size. Any suggestions on plans?
Assuming I can split this into 3 boards, is there enough length for sides?
Also I was thinking adirondack for the top keeping with the sort of classic pairing... any thoughts?
While I'm sure this is a pre-CITES piece of wood, There are obviously no documents. Outside of selling the guitar are there any issues with my using this wood?

Thanks for your help and opinions
-Frank

I would get six slices out of that. If you don't have the setup to do it, find somebody who does. I would make two back & side sets for the largest body that side lengths would allow and 4 to 6 Bridges.

Show some pictures man!

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Pat

Here's what you do; take off two .09 slices for sides. Cut off a block for Bridges. Then make three cuts yielding four .125 slices.

It will take a finely-tuned machine, razor sharp thin blade and some Frijoles, but remember, "Improve a mechanical device and you may double productivity. But improve man, you gain a thousand fold" - Khan

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Pat

You can probably find shop that will do this for you at less than the cost of a good blade. If you are inexperienced at this, there is considerable chance that you will not get a good yield, or even ruin the board. I think not wise to learn on BRW.

Pucker factor 11+

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If you made 3 piece backs (like the D35) you could build more desirable large bodied guitars. There are plenty of BRW parlor guitars out there. I think as long as you sell within your national borders BRW is not a problem. The board is a little short for sides, but you might be able to squeak by if you use a wide tail wedge and a wide flat Gibson style neck heel. Also Dreads use shorter sides than triple O's. Another possibility would be to laminate sides from veneer as many others are doing these days.

Nice score. I was out in the shop one day when a friend walked in with an arm load of wood. He said "you can have the Madagascar, I want you to build something out of the Brazilian for my daughter". Well, OK





These are parlor sized (roughly size 0) based on Joan Baez's little 0-42. They were built from the Scott Antes plans (if you decide to use them PM me or start a thread, there are some comments that should be made). I love the small size and they are amazingly loud and punchy. Oh, and with sister cut Lutz tops I cannot tell a difference between the two woods.

Lots of different ideas on this one.
It all depends what you want to get out of the board and if you are willing to pay someone to cut it for you.
If I wanted 6 slices out of it to make a Size 1 and a couple of ukes, I would send the board to Borson to have it cut. You will pay for a new blade and you will get at least 6 plates out of it. You need 4 plates to make a flitch set, no matter who cuts it. If I only want the one instrument I would cut it myself knowing that if I get greedy and try to get more slices, on a machine not made for the task, I risk losing the whole board or at least the extra 2 pieces anyway.
If you don't care about the flitch match you can cut just about any size guitar back you want and use something different for the sides. A Size 1, using the GAL plans by Ted Davis, should yield the side length out of your board if laid out carefully.
Good Luck

Do your own research before relying on this. Given the circumstances described in the original post, the USF&W Service and your local friendly US Attorney may take a dim view of this advice.

I agree that you don't want to risk such rare wood unless you have experience, and you certainly would want to maximize the amount of wood that you can get. I'm in that process right now with Brazilian to cut as well. The boards are surfaced two sides, and 1 1/16" thick, which I bought in 1981. I had some cut years ago, but only got 5 pieces to a board. My thinking was that I would rather have two usable sets out of a board then three that cannot be used. However, now, I plan on having Borson cut them; I'm working that out.

Unfortunately, I did not get the certification before CITES went into effect. But the wood can still cut and used within the U.S. The problem arises in shipping it out of the country. My bill of sale just says Brazilian Rosewood and the price.

The Antes plan mentioned is closer to a Size 2 in width, and is a pastiche of older, smaller guitars versus an accurate representation of the Martin Size 2, etc. Whatever the genesis of the plan, it does make a lovely little instrument, and we have several out that customers seem to like...close to the perfect porch guitar.

If interested in an 0 pattern, MIMF or UMGF (the markings on the files are cryptic) used to have some PDF templates for the 14 fret body and sides in the archives...I believe we have copies, and based on comparison with instruments in for repair, they are reasonably close - certainly within the variation seen on older Martins. John Hall provided this shop's original tracings for the 0-size guitars, so another source for tracings...ours have been updated from information gleaned from vintage instruments for construction details. There are also some digital plans and templates for the 12 fret and 14 fret 0 available from various sources, although I have only seen the Waldron templates (which seem fairly accurate, if a bit pricey if plans are the only thing sought).

One thing to note is that the 12 fret 0 has a side length of about 27-1/2", so the shorter 14 fret version might give a slightly shorter side length. The required side length for the Antes Small Concert is about 26", based on my notes. A total of about an inch (1/2' per side) might be picked up from displacing the sides on the neck and tail block such that they begin just inside the boundary of where the tail graft will reside and inside the footprint of the heel.

You might consider building the guitar in something a little less precious to work out the details, then mill up the Brazilian when you feel confident of the outcome. This would also give you a nice basis of comparison between something like a mahogany and a Brazilian rosewood smaller bodied instrument. Good luck with your project.

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For the times they are a changin'

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Thanks for all this awesome advice;I didn't think the board was thick enough for two sets but the math doesn't lie.
I had considered an all mahogany "practice" piece am likely to go that way. Plus an all hog parlor would be a blast to have around.
The fudging around with the end graft seems to me to be a pretty optimal way to stretch a those sides a bit, The sort of flattened neck joint is interesting, I guess ill need to think about
I am pretty certain at this point I wouldn't do the re-sawing justice and will look into having a pro re-saw this, since Borson is talked about I'll take a look at that first. My approach would be the beloved "Armstrong technique", surely not the best.
I'm considering the plan recommendations above and will definitely start a new thread when I decide.
and Clay, Thanks for turning my brain inside out with the consideration of making a M-36.... mmmmmmmm so far still parlor but...
Ill post the chunk of wood in a bit, off to real life now.
Thanks again
-Frank

This is a very good suggestion. When I was sourcing materials for my third guitar, I had this great idea to build a small bodied 12 string, one of our suppliers on this forum offered me some Brazilian rosewood. The upcharge over EIR wasn't all that much (this was 10 years ago) and while the wood may not have been that beautiful straight grained stuff from before the war, I could have boasted about my Braz guitar. I politely told my supplier that Brazilian would have been a waste, I was still making the most fundimental of mistakes, and could he provide some nice EIR instead.

That guitar turned out fine but not stellar. It is not my favorite guitar, I do take it out from time to time but I've built a couple more 12 strings (one of them mahogany) that I like as much or more. I'm glad I didn't waste the precious wood on it.

A couple of years ago I did get a chance to build with Brazilian, the parlor above. I would never have sought it out or paid the price, but my customer did and both of us are very happy with the guitar that I built for him. I was at a point in my progression as a luthier (I'm not there yet) that I didn't feel that I would screw up precious wood too badly. But having built with it once I don't feel any need to do it again.