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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on March 4, 2010 at 4:11am

From Wikipedia:

Although today their use is far more restricted, in the past the size and strength of kauri timber made it a popular wood for construction and ship building, particularly for masts of sailing ships due to its parallel grain and the absence of branches extending for much of its height. Kauri is also a superb timber for building the hulls and decks of boats because of its resistance to rot. Kauri crown and stump wood was much appreciated for its beauty, and was sought after for ornamental wood panelling as well as high-end furniture. Though not as highly prized, the light colour of kauri trunk wood made it also well-suited for more utilitarian furniture construction, as well as for use in the fabrication of cisterns, barrels, bridges construction material, fences, moulds for metal forges, large rollers for the textile industry, railroad ties and braces for mines and tunnels, among many others.
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hardness scale ranged in the 650s (0-4000) which would be roughly the hardness of Douglass Fir. I definitely would test this. Bloodwood is about 3300 and N Am Maple is about 1450. Heart pine is about 1250.

-WY

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on March 4, 2010 at 4:28am

OH! I found out that his scale (0-4000) is the pounds of force necessary to indent a test object into a wood sample:

A measure of the hardness of wood, produced by a variation on the Brinell hardness test. The test measures the force required to push a steel ball with a diameter of 11.28 millimeters (0.444 inches) into the wood to a depth of half the ball's diameter (the diameter was chosen to produce a circle with an area of 100 square millimeters). In Janka's original test. the results were expressed in units of pressure, but when the ASTM standardized the test (tentative issue in 1922, standard first formally adopted in 1927), it called for results in units of force.

The results are stated in various ways in different countries, which can lead to confusion, especially since the name of the actual unit employed is often not attached. In the United States, the measurement is in pounds-force. In Sweden it is apparently in kilogram-force (kgf), and in Australia, Janka hardness ratings are either in newtons (N) or kilonewtons (kN). Sometimes the results are treated as units, e.g., “360 janka.”

The hardness of wood usually varies with the direction of the grain. If testing is done on the surface of a plank, with the force exerted perpendicular to the grain, the test is said to be of “side hardness.” Side hardnesses of a block of wood measured in the direction of the tree's center (radially), and on a tangent to the tree's rings (tangentially), are typically very similar. End testing is also sometimes done (that is, testing the cut surface of a stump would be a test of end hardness). The side hardness of teak, for example, is in the range 3730 to 4800 newtons, while the end hardness is in the range 4150 to 4500 newtons.
(http://www.sizes.com/units/janka.htm)

-WY

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on March 5, 2010 at 1:59am

i'll look for some maple.
thanks for the info guys, some of it i had searched and found as well. I was also looking at a piece of hackberry that i could pick up which is hardwood but seems to be brittle.
what do you prefer for your fingerboards? why?

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on March 5, 2010 at 2:30am

I use mostly 2x1/4" oak, BUT I have some Paduka (sic) which is kinda like Zebrawood and sorta oily. A little like olive wood. Hard tho and slick. Nice look to it.

You could use 'bout any hard wood from rosewood on up I suppose.

-WY

Jonathan Lovin said:

i'll look for some maple.
thanks for the info guys, some of it i had searched and found as well. I was also looking at a piece of hackberry that i could pick up which is hardwood but seems to be brittle.
what do you prefer for your fingerboards? why?

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on March 5, 2010 at 2:31am

You know, you're over in Asia (from what I can see). Either Asian wood is easy to come by or expensive as hell in Japan.

-WY

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Permalink Reply by Outhouse Instruments on March 5, 2010 at 2:33am

IF i remember correctly, agathis is part of the pine family. Pine runs anywhere from 700 er so to 800 er so.
In my opinion, too soft for a fretboard or finger board. It would dent and scar up quickly and easily.


Matt

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on March 5, 2010 at 2:39am

You know, I would love to find a good length of what we in the South call 'ligher wood', 'fat wood' -- Southern Pine that has undergone a trauma where the tree dies (mostly standing erect) and the sap hardens. The wood is VERY hard and flammable. We use it to start fires (in fireplaces or campfires of course). I wonder what kind of a fretboard that would make. Or would it be REALLY sticky.

-WY

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on March 5, 2010 at 2:40am

Japan decided to overwhelm the tree population with cedar a couple a decades ago which has caused almost all hardwoods or any wood that's not cedar to be a prized property. for example: an oak neck blank that would run you 10 -15 dollars might cost me over 50 and i would have to have it shipped to me from a specialized vendor. I'm trying to figure out what wood is easy to come by here and worth using. I've gotten to know a few longtime builders who are helping me on this quest. the quest is a big part of what has made this so interesting for me.

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Permalink Reply by Outhouse Instruments on March 5, 2010 at 7:05am

Maybe you need to start exporting cedar?

Matt

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