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Well...have you sunk to this depth of depravity?

That's a piece of myrtlewood. I was happy to discover how workable/machinable this wood is. I wish I could get this stuff in higher quantites.

I experimented with baking this wood and managed to control the color to some extent. This wood can go from a tannish green to a deep, dark brown depending on time and temperature in the oven. I got a VERY nice golden color at 320F. for three hours.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Gorgeous. I want.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Love Myrtlewood! That's a really nice piece! You guys have gotta stop doin' this to me!

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Mike

The only thing nescessary for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing.

It's o.k....

What can I say? It just doesn't do much for me.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Beautiful piece of myrtle. One of my favorite woods.

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Instant Woody!

Nice!
How deep does the toasting go?
If you were to carve that, would the color stay the same?
Nice!
Nice!

It goes all the way through. I clamp two 1/2" myrtlewood plates between two 1/2" thick aluminum plates. Aluminum tranfers heat very well so the heat is evenly applied over the board area. I have to guess that if you were trying to do this with 8/4 or 10/4 it might end up lighter in the middle....but the fix for that would be to use a lower temp and leave it in there longer.

This process is also used to flatten warped boards. Very effective for that.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Wow, beautiful stuff, Stuart. You've gotten an almost koa-like golden color in that pic. Nice work

Hell yeah! Awesome piece you got there man!

Myrtlewood is my all time favourite timber!



Check this out, all myrtlewood guitars I built!

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http://hufschmidguitars.com

Could you tell me more about wood cooking techniques? Any resources? This is the first I've heard of it. I'd love to experiment with it. I've got a bookmatched piece of maple burl that needs some flattening.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

What a coincidence! I have some bookmatched Myrtlewood I got a couple months back that will be guitar #4 - it's going to be a drop-top with a redwood soundboard and then Mahogany back - love the baking idea - would a campfire darken it more quickly?

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"Talking about music is like dancing over architecture".
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I can tell you some but I've only just started doing this.

Assuming a 4/4 board and the use of some aluminum plates. Don't use steel or other boards for support. Steel will take too long to transfer heat which will skew your numbers and leave you less in control of the result. Wood, used as a support, will stress relieve under heat and lose it's shape....no good.

Test scraps of the same board whenever possible before committing to the actual piece. To flatten boards you don't necessarily have to accept a change of color. You can turn a piece of maple deep, dark brown, dry it out, and make it brittle by using 375F for four hours. That'll probably wreck it. The starting temp (in order to guarantee no damage) should be 300F for two hours. That should be enough to flatten but not change color. Test to be sure.

After the bake let the wood reach room temperature before unclamping. It is very important to avoid having the wood cool unevenly. Slow is best.

Once you get a good feel for the lot of lumber you are working with you can control the toasted color pretty well....it's pretty forgiving.

Baking will dry the board. It may also change the cell structure to prevent or thwart the ingress and egress of moisture. Not sure about that but you probably should have a moisture meter if you are going to do this. I just got a nice one but the density of myrtlewood needs to be entered into it to get a useable reading and the published densities for myrtlewood are all over the map. Another point is with maple. Maple runs a wide range of densities depending on the species. It's a little hard to know what you have in your hands sometimes so a moisture meter could mislead you if you aren't sure.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Would it be necessary, or a good idea to soak the wood before baking? I'd be a little worried about burl, being typically somewhat brittle in the first place. Thanks for the tips.

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http://www.tinyhouseandland.com

Unless you have the ability to actually control humidity in your oven I don't see how soaking it is going really help control things. It could work though. I've been thinking about putting a caserole dish filled with water in with one of these tests. As it boils throughout the cycle it might emulate an actual kiln. I dont' know that much about kilns but I do know that the last step in properly cured kiln dried lumber is a high heat, high humidity cycle that is meant to stress relieve the wood.

_________________
I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic