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Hello all,

I bought this wood along time ago and now am started to question my recollection as to it being Paduak. Does this look like Padauk to you? The density of the wood is 47.6 lbs/ft^3, which does fit the figure I found on the internet. It has open pores also.

Next question. It is my intention to use this wood for a bass neck. The wood is well quartered and is thick enough to cut neck blanks from. Note that this will not be a laminated neck but rather a single, solid neck with a scarf joint for the headstock. It is heavy, but I have recently played a 5 string Ibanez bass with a Wenge bolt on neck and it was alright (Wenge seems pretty dense, too). Any stability issues to be concerned about? I'm thinking I may go with carbon fiber inserts in the neck, but it does seem like a very stiff wood so this may be over kill. I have the impression it is stiff from the ring of the board when it is tapped, almost like tapping a piece of metal.

Thanks for any advice,

Cheers,

Stefan

It wood be nicer to have seen more of it shot in sunlight and a shot of some of the oxadized surface. However I wood go 95 % yes on it being Paduak.

Used it many times for necks (quartered, rift and flat saw, no problem), fret boards, backs, ribs, tailpieces, jewlery boxes, toothpics and firewood. Not because me like it, just that me happens to has lots of it so me uses it.


the
Padma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Stefan-
It looks like Padauk to me. Padauk has a quite characteristic orange-red colour in sawdust/scrapings- was used as a dyestuff in olden days. Sawdust will stain your hands. Oxidized surfaces turn a rich dark orangey-red-brown.

I'd watch the overall weight and balance issues if making a bass with it- it's fairly heavy stuff.

Though some boards I've had were splintery, I generally like padauk, and I've found it works well.

Cheers
John

Yes! I recently built a telecaster from this stuff. Nice wood. Heavy as hell though. I also built an adjustable mandolin bridge from the scraps. It turned out to have a nice sound for that.

Scrape and sniff; padauk has a cloyingly sweet cotton-candy kind of smell.

It looks a lot like Jatoba to me. Very heavy stuff, not very expensive compared to many other non-domestic hardwoods. I have a bunch that I am going to use whenever I get around to resawing.

_________________
"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Looks like Bubinga to me. Padauk oxidizes like crazy, so if you sand the face a bit, it will change color significantly. Better yet, split an offcut in two. Most of the Padauk I've seen will be bright orange/yellow inside.

It's tough stuff to glue. Test on scrap, test on scrap, test on scrap...

Leave this sit in the sunlight and it will darken very quickly. Gluing up should be done withing a half hour or less of cutting or jointing an edge. Polyurethane works well with this. I made a 2 piece body using Polyurethane. Epoxy works well also and is less messy then polyurethane. Regular titebond is iffy with this wood. It can be a hit and miss. Even though I used poly i would use epoxy again because of the foaming mess...Mike

Some have experienced situations of the oil in padauk inhibiting the glue ups form staying glued up.

Me have not. Scored half dozen 5" x 6" x 14' cants of the stuff and so far no goo up problems.

Seems some padauk is more oily than others.

Some peoples just glue.

Some wash wood with acetone or lacquer thinners or other high grade huffin stuff.

Some glue immediately after tooling, jointer or scraping the surfaces.

Some scrape, wash, glue and then pray it sticks together.

Me, me just lather her up with white glue, clamp her down, tell her for to stay put and say "thank you spirit" It works. Neber been a problem.

Now then there was the situation me had with some cocobolo that must been cured in the left over
oil vats from MacDonalds. It just did not like the glue no how.

In me opinion and experience its the oils in the wood and not the so much the species of wood. Sorta like people eh!


blessings
the
Padma

_________________
.

Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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