WTB- Arizona Desert Ironwood (20” x 3” x .375” to 12/4)

[Arn213]

I am assembling materials for a fiddle project- I have pickups and our own @Tony provided recently provided me with “Hawaiian Liquid Gold” which will be the main ingredient for double front/back set and possibly neck (if I can fit it)- much oblige and greatly appreciate you Tony as you ultimately help push me to this point forward. Ideally I would like to procure all of the materials from WB members and use all domestic woods for this project.

I am looking for Arizona desert ironwood- quarter sawn vertical grain or close to being quartered cut. The blanks has to be free of natural defects or natural drying seasoned checks. I can work with outside corner edge sapwood (or minor defects) as long as it will be outside of the pattern that is 2-3/8” wide at one end tapering to 1-3/4” at the opposite end and about 19.25” long- ideally a minimum blank that is 20”’long, 2-3/4” wide and .375” thick. A thicker block from 4/4 to upwards of 12/4 will be a bonus. I am open to the rainbow for colors ranging from yellow-orange, orange to black and/or the black with fiery orange.

Thank you all!

Arn

 

[Eric Rorabaugh]

@barry richardson

 

[2feathers Creative Making]

@vegas urban lumber may have a piece off a stump that size...

 

[Nature Man]

@Nubsnstubs

 

[Nature Man]

@shadetree_1 used to have some beautiful DIW. He's been inactive of late though. Chuck

 

[barry richardson]

I could have filled your bill once upon a time, Haven't harvested any lately though, who knows I might stumble upon some, always on the lookout. BTW Most folks, including me, look for max figure in DIW, that's what sells best, straight grained/quarter sawn yields the least figure in general, so hardly anyone mills it like that...

 

[vegas urban lumber]

I am assembling materials for a fiddle project- I have pickups and our own @Tony provided recently provided me with “Hawaiian Liquid Gold” which will be the main ingredient for double front/back set and possibly neck (if I can fit it)- much oblige and greatly appreciate you Tony as you ultimately help push me to this point forward. Ideally I would like to procure all of the materials from WB members and use all domestic woods for this project.

I am looking for Arizona desert ironwood- quarter sawn vertical grain or close to being quartered cut. The blanks has to be free of natural defects or natural drying seasoned checks. I can work with outside corner edge sapwood (or minor defects) as long as it will be outside of the pattern that is 2-3/8” wide at one end tapering to 1-3/4” at the opposite end and about 19.25” long- ideally a minimum blank that is 20”’long, 2-3/4” wide and .375” thick. A thicker block from 4/4 to upwards of 12/4 will be a bonus. I am open to the rainbow for colors ranging from yellow-orange, orange to black and/or the black with fiery orange.

Thank you all!

Arn

mine won't be that nice or defect free

 

[Arn213]

Thank you for the tags fellows. Barry @barry richardson I appreciate you keeping an eye out. Have to stay optimistic and a member here has to have a piece or two suitable for the specs. for what I need.

You all probably all wondering if I am “barking at the wrong tree” and why do I have such stringent request. It will be explained below and I am not being a “cork sniffer”- just want to avoid any mishaps or issues with natural defects when used for specific component on a musical instrument.

I actually like the end results of desert ironwood even though you feel like your nose is always inside the cat litter box as you work with it. It would easily rate at the top 5 of my favorite domestic woods, just because it does exhibit an incredible chatoyance, it has such a smooth silky hand and luster. Yes, you are right and do agree that figured type is more valuable and more sought after. However, quartered cut material in certain applications with more surface area, will tend to rise to the occasion and really exhibit a radiating chatoyance/shimmer that is different from the burl type of compressed curl types of DI. See photo’s below for reference.



^I have to confess that I had one re-sawn that I was working with on a project in which I had a sinker flame redwood, a pernambuco neck and a quartered cut desert ironwood fretboard. I used the desert ironwood as the basis of the color scheme with color on color to compliment it with the chocolate-orange sinker redwood along with the yellow-orange colored pernambuco.

A friend of mine had a fairly unique build going where he had a black limba landscape body blank to go with an unusual Peruvian neck wood the color of lignum vitae, one piece hard rock maple top and he was missing a piece of the puzzle to complete the build (fretboard). I happened to share the photo of what I was working on and he had to have the DI fretboard. So I shelved my project and sent off the fretboard to him. See photo’s of work in progress and finished fretboard. I have to tell you he was “over the moon” when the guitar was finished. He liked that build so much and so happy with the end result with the whole guitar especially with desert ironwood that he wants to replicate another one this coming year. Oh and he did ask me if I had another piece stashed away……….

 

[rob3232]

Probably too small but all that I have. It might work for smaller pieces??

 

[Nubsnstubs]

Arn, all my DI is of real old stock, over 100 years dead. There's way too many hairline type cracks. I'll look again in the coming days.......... Jerry (in Tucson)

 

[Arn213]

Rob @rob3232 thank you my friend for digging that out and I very much appreciate it. It is not too small- the length is actually correct, but the heartwood pith is off center (right), I see a small opportunity to the left, but that would end up flat sawn and would be a waste of wood IMHO just to extract some fretboards. Someone can do something greater with that size.

Jerry @Nubsnstubs - thank you! I am hoping maybe you can find a short log with maybe 8-10” diameter which usually has the typical “starkist” pith. If that was quartered, that is ideally where I can get quartered material. Yes, the logs are a pita because the checks and cracks meander from the bark face and a lot of it tends to have a pity party in the pith. I have re-sawn some billets and I find that hair line checks can and will sneak in after all said and done- that is one of the negative aspects with this species. But I will take this wood over snakewood any day of the week.

If the quartered aspect doesn’t work, I might switch up to flat sawn/slab sawn because the opportunity is greater to find that size. The neck will be flat sawn, so a flat sawn fretboard should behave in the same manner and be more “in sync” as they are the same orientation. We will see…..