Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2021 11:51:16 GMT -6
Could have been wenge. The store is only 35min away from the resort we are staying at with our son. But it's about 8 hr away from where we live. LOL! Super nice lady owns the store. She really loves working with wood. Her dad owns a saw mill. She use to work there before she decided to go into the wood buisness for herself. EB
Man! that's a long way from home. Good that you took advantage of being that close. Very glad my best resource is only 1.5 hrs from home. Any farther away really one might as well buy on line the cost of fuel alone could offset the shipping. I did ask her if she ships wood, and she does. May be something to think about. I still need to find that other place that is an hour away from me. But I think I have enough wood to build 2 guitars and some necks and a few fret boards.
I can hardly wait until we get home, so, I can sit and look at the woods I got. LOL! EB
|
|
|
Post by dnic on Aug 24, 2021 22:13:43 GMT -6
1.5 hours? Wowser! On this little island (and with a tail wind and no traffic jams) I can just about make the South Coast (The English Channel) in an hour and a half. I'm so provincial that to me such a journey is a bit of an undertaking (as in I think of it as "Here we go off to see the sea then.) Still 'n' all, I've driven a fair few of your routes and it's a different ball game over there. Of course we frequently drive 6-7 hours to the North West or the far South West, but that's not like going to buy some fine timber. e&oe ...Yes Steve, since you have worked here and driven I-5 I know you know very well what it's like driving over her. Sometime before I pass I would really like to spend time on your island. So many things I'd love to see and experience over there. Anyway want to back up a bit to driving distances. If one was to drive the speed limit it would take about 16 hours to drive north to south boarder to boarder. I can't think of a route east to west that goes fairly straight. depending where in the state probably take 6 to 8 hours to drive it east to west. FWIW...
|
|
|
Post by dnic on Aug 24, 2021 22:18:16 GMT -6
Man! that's a long way from home. Good that you took advantage of being that close. Very glad my best resource is only 1.5 hrs from home. Any farther away really one might as well buy on line the cost of fuel alone could offset the shipping. I did ask her if she ships wood, and she does. May be something to think about. I still need to find that other place that is an hour away from me. But I think I have enough wood to build 2 guitars and some necks and a few fret boards.
I can hardly wait until we get home, so, I can sit and look at the woods I got. LOL! EB
This is a real quote I saw on a sign in a lumber yard. A picture of a man gazing at a 2x4, the caption read. "ED'S AFFECTION FOR WOOD WAS GETTING THE BETTER OF HIM". I always laughed really hard at that sign because I would spend so much time going through piles of lumber looking for perfect boards.
|
|
|
Post by antares on Aug 25, 2021 1:07:01 GMT -6
I like this rabbit trail!
Searching for the ideal piece of wood; I bought and installed some 6" x 1" "bull nosed" mahogany for a kitchen window sill at "Roland's" hardware store, a long since gone local store that also had a great woodmill out the back. It is still standing there, but was taken over and now just sells pine furniture. It now calls itself Roland's Pine. It turned out to be a pleasing outcome, so when I soon thereafter refurbished the bathroom, I went back for another piece. It was a dark Aladdin's cave kind of place where you could rummage around unmolested by salesmen. I found only one length the same, but it had a 30° twist along its length. It was a country mile from being the "perfect" length but it was the only one.
I had the guy on the lathe at work turn me some 1/2" mahogany infill decorative dowells with the grain across on the ends to allow a degree of matching, and I screwed that sucker down to the bricks right at each end with 6" screws using the dowells to finish off the counterbored holes. Of course the dowells absorbed more lacquer so they are definitely visible, but they look intentional. I also bonded it down with loads of 3M "Scotchweld" adhesive and about 4-5 hundredweight of "stuff" to hold it down over night. Here we are over thirty years later and another bathroom refit two years ago, now totally tiled out but the mahogany window sill survived the rip out. On reflection, although far from ideal initially, it turned out to be the perfect piece of timber after all.
Regarding that hardware store; the staff all wore brown warehouseman coats and gave you a "chitty" which was a kind of invoice for what you wanted to buy. You then went to a counter in the corner of the shop that was screened off with glass to the ceiling making a cubicle with a small open window to pass "chitties", money and receipts, a little like a bank I guess. I suspect that chitty might be a word from India? It sure sounds like it. Then you returned to the sales counter with the receipt to claim your goods.
I used to love that place. Being constructed from lots of timber, it was a serious fire risk. Tgat was driven home when you walked around and you could see all the decommisioned gas lighting pipework. Another age! I miss that place because there's nothing like it to this day around here for miles.
"Like the corners of my mind ..."
e&oe ...
|
|
|
Post by dnic on Aug 25, 2021 7:06:06 GMT -6
What an amazing place that must have been. Great history, thanks for sharing Steve.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2021 12:37:43 GMT -6
wow! I miss places like that. There was one wood store I use to go to in FL that was kind of like that. They had everything and anything in that place. I would wind up spending hours there. Back then I didn't the knowledge of woods like I have now.
I did wind up going back to that wood store I was at a few days ago. I went back to buy some African mahogany. The lady asked me if I wanted to look at the real stuff. She took me over to where she stocks it. Here was a pile of Mahogany! WOW! the dark red stuff. She told me that her dad got the tree from the White House. It had fallen and he was hired to remove the tree. She showed me pictures of it. It was a huge tree. Hard telling how old it was.
They took a picture of her standing next to a huge slab of it. She told me that tree yielded a lot of slabs and the wood I was looking at was some of the wood from that tree. The price was a little steep for me so I left there without any of it. I wish I could have gotten some, for the only reason that it was once standing at the White House. Been cool to make a guitar with a White House theme to it.
Well, I am happy with the wood I did get. I now have enough for at least 4 guitars and some necks and fret boards. But, if I had the money I would bought a whole lot more wood from her. For a small place she a big variety. EB
|
|
|
Post by dnic on Aug 26, 2021 17:41:36 GMT -6
My BS meter was kind of going wild over the mahogany tree at the White House story. Hey I'm no expert but I thought that might be stretch so I looked it up. According to good old Google we're not likely to find mahogany trees in the US except in Southern Florida.
Maybe wood with a better back story brings in more$. I'm a cynic.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2021 19:18:22 GMT -6
My BS meter was kind of going wild over the mahogany tree at the White House story. Hey I'm no expert but I thought that might be stretch so I looked it up. According to good old Google we're not likely to find mahogany trees in the US except in Southern Florida. Maybe wood with a better back story brings in more$. I'm a cynic. All know is she had pictures of the tree. Before and after. I don't think she would lie about it. I didn't ask her for any proof. But she did have pictures of the fallen tree on land that looked like it could have been somewhere on the white house land. NO pictures of the white house. Maybe I miss under stood her. It was some time ago. But no one really knows. The tree is really old. Looks older than the white house. It is or was a huge tree. It may have been the last ones. Even Google does not know every thing.
I know of an orange tree that is/was around 200 years old that still produces oranges. In CA. It is said that orange trees only produce oranges for 10 to 15 years. But yet here is this one that still gets oranges on it. I lived there where that orange tree is or was. It was known for being the oldest orange tree In CA. I doubt it's still there by this time. But they had a huge fence around it to protect it from people.
I use to be like that too, and I am still that way with some stuff. But I know we can't prove everything. I had seen stuff, that I just knew it was not real, that turned out to be real. At one time I didn't believe that a horseshoe could be found inside of a tree. Until I cut a tree down that had one in it. LOL! I use to have a tree care business. I cut down a lot of trees back in the day. Sad to say a lot of tress I wish I had today. Really sad to say that all the trees I cut down back then would up in fire places.
Cut a lot of trees up for fire wood back then, do to after a heavy rain they would fall onto houses and barns. I cut up a lot of trees that are now use in guitar making. If I had known then what I know now, a lot of them trees would be making music today.
But for me, you just never really know. There could have been one old mahogany tree on the property of the White House. History does not show everything that goes on in life.
I know a guy that was an inventor. He was a millionaire. He made his millions form inventing fuel systems for cars and then selling his inventions to Ford, Chevy and so on. He was my best friends dad. I tell this story to people and they don't believe me. But it's the truth! People say to me that have heard story's like mine form other people. The only thing is I know it's real. I even seen some of his inventions. Working on cars. I have no proof of it. But, like I said I did see it with my own eyes. I know it was real and there is nothing that anyone can say to me to prove that it was not. Some call my story a myth or an old wives tell. Hum... If my story was not true, then how come my friend was so well off? I never seen his dad doing anything but in his garage working on his next million dollar idea as he would call it. BS to some... but not to me...
EB
|
|
|
Post by antares on Aug 27, 2021 2:59:05 GMT -6
My grandfather once told me that he used to deliver trucks for Rootes up in The West Midlands. He said that they'd had an ongoing problem with propshafts twisting as drive was taken up. Although he was just a lowly driver, he suggested to the Company that they split up the propshaft along its length. Not how, just do it somehow! The Company subsequently came up with what became known as the Hardy Spicer Universal Joint, and he said the company paid him a sum of two hundred pounds for the idea. That was a LOT of money back then.
BS? I don't know, but Grandad went AWOL in his seventies and Nan was beside herself. The family convened a pow wow, and my Dad's twin brother recalled that Grandad used to lodge with a landlady up in The West Midlands when he was driving for Rootes at least some 40 years before (so we're probably talking between the wars?) and he tracked down contact details. Sure enough, Grandad was there thinking he'd escaped! Uncle persuaded him to come home.
Quite a character my Grandad; he had managed the dairy on Hounslow Heath, had twice kept book at White City dog track earning plenty and losing the lot both times, and he had been the proprieter of a locally famous transport cafe in Stavely Road, Chiswick, West London. All the foregoing is passed down as families do, and may have been subject to Chinese Whispers or blatant exaggeration, but hey- that's life!
I'm sure the propshaft stuff can be researched but not likely Grandad's claimed input, but you know it seems a very unlikely thing to serve up as BS to a wide-eyed seven year-old like me, so I'm hanging my hat on it!
One last thing- as that same wide-eyed kid, I was present when he skinned a rabbit and he hooked the eyes out and put them on the front garden gate post. I asked him what that was for and he replied "They'll wink at the cars driving by at night as the headlamps catch them!" Priceless!
e&oe ...
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2021 14:42:00 GMT -6
Ok I was mistaking about the White House. The tree came from the State Capital of FL. I called and found out. Don't know how I got the idea of the White House. Sorry!
We made it home. As soon as we get settled back in, I'll take some pictures of the wood I have, and pictures or I might do a video on the 5 pound box of sand paper I got while I was gone. HA!
EB
|
|
|
Post by dnic on Aug 28, 2021 6:46:27 GMT -6
I like the end of that story. To funny!
Yeah you got the sand paper! Be interesting to see the break down on the grits. Mine were perfect for what I do.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2021 13:46:39 GMT -6
I like the end of that story. To funny! Yeah you got the sand paper! Be interesting to see the break down on the grits. Mine were perfect for what I do. I just did a video on the box of sandpaper and the wood I bought. Waiting on it to load. Once it loads I'll post it. EB
|
|
|
Post by dnic on Aug 29, 2021 7:02:13 GMT -6
Well I saw the video before this post. It was cool.
|
|
|
Post by dnic on Sept 6, 2021 7:53:42 GMT -6
So I've a few rosewood fretboard from Hibdon hardwoods. Now I'm on their mailer. They have Chechen back and side sets on sale right now, www.hibdonhardwood.com/collections/chechen-back-side-sets. Looks like fair pricing for some nicely figured pieces. About weather, we are in a "drought". I put that in quotes because while I don't disagree we are in a cycle of dryer than normal years we haven't had normal years for some time now. And yes the Mountain looks very naked. But there are two lakes in the town of Redding, about an hour south of here, Mt Shasta. About 10 miles apart as the crow flys. Shasta Lake is extremely low, a trickle in some areas while Whiskeytown lake is full to the brim. The difference between these two lakes is water management. Lake Shasta has a dam while Whiskeytown has only a spillway. We have had water meters installed two years ago and now pay by usage. (I know that's common everywhere. But it wasn't here.) The prices are also steadily going up. I know this means nothing to all you folks in other parts of the states or world but it's a common practice aparently in economics and government. Create a shortage and then jack up the price. Fuel, wood, water.... Who knows, I could be full of it
|
|
|
Post by antares on Sept 6, 2021 9:32:33 GMT -6
We are of course a tiny island and over subscribed for fonite water resources. Over here the authorities want everyone to be on meters for services, and water is no exception. I have resisted such so far, but I am aware that if I should move house the water company will insist on a meter, and the new owners of this place will be obliged likewise. If I have a meter forced onto me, I shall no longer have to pay a garden hose licence (although I imagine they'd find a way to justify its retention) but I doubt that we would ever water the garden via a water meter ... Even though we are not on a water meter, we are both very frugal with water. When I was an ankle-snapper, the UK had 52,000,000 subjects (not citizens sadly). Now there are pushing 68,000,000. All those extra folk have brought with them additional demands on water consumption, electricity, gas housing and the rest of the recognised required infrastructure, together with the commensurate emissions. Finite resources are incompatible with and distinct from the economic explosion that come with them.
Where I live we are surrounded by reservoirs which all go to slake London's insatiable thirst- kind of like Lake Meade's and the Merced River's withering relationship with San Francisco I guess? Despite all that water, we get our's straight from the River Thames via filter beds and it is disgusting with a capital "D". We drink our tea very weak and black, and you really should see the brown gloop and slime that clings onto the cup walls. We filter it but the filters last barely one week. Yeuchh. The water company is a private entity with beneficiary shareholders. I would be ashamed to profit from such mediocrity.
e&oe ...
|
|