From off cuts to a Ukulele (I hope!)

[Michelle_K]

This is my first attempt at a an ongoing post so please go easy on me. A while ago Custard kindly gave me some off cuts of rippled sycamore. It has beautiful flame. What most woodworks would cast aside as scrap or fire wood I can use to make instruments. So if anyone else has any nice offcuts... !Getting a hold of decent nicely figured woods for instrument making can be tricky. Most instrument wood is sized for guitar rather then ukuleles and though I am learning to make both guitars and ukuleles, at home due to limited space and tools, I focus on ukuleles as they are smaller and easier to make in a smaller space.
So with the sycamore off cuts I have decided to make a concert ukulele. Now, I am still in my infancy as far as instrument making and woodworking goes. I haven't actually completed an instrument yet! I came close but still make a lot of mistakes. But I am learning to work through the mistakes and get over the frustration rather then just starting again. I am still at college learning how to make instruments. I began to learn instrument making and woodworking in general at the same time which has been and continues to prove challenging, but I am getting by.
I have only been doing it for a year and a half.
I said to custard that I would show him pics of the build, but then I thought I would share it with everyone as I may get some valuable feedback and inspire someone else to give it ago.
Disclaimer:
I am not a professional. This is not supposed to be a tutorial in any way. There are far more experienced luthiers out there who would be better to follow. This is just a documentation of my process.

So... Let's get to it.

 

[Michelle_K]

Planning up the back. Intially got a lot of tear out. I Stropped my blade on a piece of mdf after every few passes and this helped a lot! I would love to try a low angle plane to see if this makes a real difference on figured woods. I currently sharpen my blades using wet and dry sandpaper which I hate! I hope to get some shapton glass stones or dmt diamond stones in the future! For ease of use.
When I was close to the desired thickness (2mm for both the backs and sides), I turned to a card scraper.

 

[skipdiver]

That is some nice looking wood. Will be watching with interest.

 

[thetyreman]

that figured maple is gorgeous! wow

when you can afford it get some diamond stones and you'll be set for life, I use DMT stones, eze lap are just as good as well, they are worth it in the longterm.

 

[Michelle_K]

So with the boards all cleaned up I taped them together and cut them in half. I had to cut at an angle to get enough room for the top and back. I have no room to play around with. The top and back only just fit.

 

[profchris]

Have you seen my Making a Ukulele thread Michelle?

making-a-ukulele-t100091.html

Today's posting is the first stringing up, so I'm far enough ahead that you might find some helpful ideas there. However, I'm not a professional either, so don't treat anything I write as gospel.

There is a post about planing at 45 degrees to the grain direction to control tearout, setting the cap iron for the same purpose, and also about using toothed planes on figured wood. I don't find bevel up planes any better with figured wood.

So far you look as if things are going well. My only suggestion would be that you don't treat your 2mm target as definitive. That was my target too, using Tasmanian Blackwood, but my wood is so stiff that the top is nearer 1.5mm and the back and sides 1.8mm or less. With your figured sycamore you might even need to take the sides below 1.5mm to bend them without problems, as that kind of figure is prone to creasing or cracking because the grain undulates along the length of the board (that's where the stripes come from, they're end grain at the surface). For bending some kind of backing strip is really helpful. I use a piece of recycled aluminium siding from a caravan. Hold it tight to the outside of the bend to persuade the wood to stay connected rather than opening up along a grain line.

 

[Michelle_K]

Hi Chris, your thread is amazing and having only just started going through it I have already picked up some useful tips. It's interesting that you are taking the classical approach to the build. Mine will be a steel string approach with my nemesis the dovetail joint!!! For my next build I will try that classical guitar approach I think. I have seen many people use it and it seems really interesting.

I look forward to reading through the rest of your thread!

Mine seems so basic in comparison but hey, we all have to start somewhere. Your build has already been an inspiration! Be prepared for a million questions!! And that wood... Amazing!!!!!

Thank you for the post and link.

Regards!

 

[Michelle_K]

Right so with the pieces cut out I had to joint the edges of the board. This was a scary task as I had a matter of mm to play around with. Usually when I do this I have a tendency to take off far more then I need. Either due to taking to large a cut, or just chasing the gap. Which is less then ideal as you tend to find on most instrument sets the tighter grain (which is what you want) is close to the edge. So the more you remove the wider the grain becomes. I am getting better at it though.
As I had so little room to play with I took a few really light passes with my hand plane just to get me in the ball park and then I used a piece of mdf with sandpaper stuck to it. You could also stick some sandpaper to a spirit level. This is a slower method but I prefer it as it gives a better joint and takes off less material. You just have to be careful not to round over the edges.
Once you think the join is done hold the two boards up to a light source. No light and you are ready to go. If you have some spots letting light through and other spots that do not, you need to lightly remove material from the areas that are NOT letting light through. Which for me is usually the ends of the edge.
I saw a jointing jig today which basically supports the board being held upright allowing you to run the edges over a piece of glass with sandpaper. It is basically the same approach only the boards are upright rather then on their sides.

 

[profchris]

Your rippled sycamore looks very beautiful! Once you have some offcuts I recommend you start thinking about finishes, and experiment on them. Given that the sycamore will darken quite a lot with light exposure, do you want to stain it? Or to try to preserve the light colour?

Either way, you want to pop the figure as it's so good. My experience is that either shellac or an oil finish (probably Tru Oil) does that best. I believe a good oil varnish can look even better, but varnish is really tricky for ukes and guitars because of the thin film needed, and the good stuff is expensive.

Whatever you go for, your big risk is blotching because of the end grain that makes the figure. Thus the need to experiment. I'd probably go for no stain, two wiped on coats of clear shellac, then Tru Oil. Or maybe some darker shellac, then the oil on top.

I will watch and probably learn!

 

[custard]

Well done, looks great!

=D>

 

[Michelle_K]

Once I had jointed the boards I glued them up. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow some bar clamps. However, there are a number of other ways to do this without clamps. There is the method where you raise the two boards up in the centre and then hammer nails around both edges of the boards, you then apply glue to the joint and remove the centre strip raising the boards. When you push the boards down the nails act as clamps and hold them together. Little pressure is needed. I saw another method today where a luthier laid the boards on three pieces of two by four coated in wax. He then wrapped cord around the ends of the two by four and going over and under the soundboard. Once it was all wrapped up in cord he hammered wedges under the cord which pulled the boards together. Nice and simple!

 

[Michelle_K]

The soundboards, back and sides.

 

[Michelle_K]

All cleaned up.

 

[WibbleWobble]

That looks absolutely stunning, you look to be doing a great job of it so far.

Quick question if I may for Custard, where you you source your rippled timber? I am looking to get some to try and make myself some inlay lines. And can't seem to find any highly rippled like this.

Pete

 

[custard]

I am looking to get some to try and make myself some inlay lines. And can't seem to find any highly rippled like this.

Pete

Hello Pete, I'm not that familiar with Cheshire timber yards so I can't recommend a specific yard. What I would say is that Rippled Sycamore is the most common of the highly figured timbers that you'll regularly find in the UK, so it's not usually that difficult to track some down. More difficult is finding Sycamore that's a really bright white. It's a tricky timber to process and most yards seem to cut corners resulting in a greyish cast, mould marks, or stickering marks.

If all else fails you could try Timberline in Kent as they will post out smaller items,

http://shop.exotichardwoods.co.uk

Ask for Bob or Hamish and explain you want inlay timber, so it needs to be straight grained, white and heavily rippled but not necessarily rippled right across the board's full width. Sometimes the best Sycamore is called "Arctic Sycamore", if you find a rippled version of this you should be okay.

Good luck!

 

[Ttrees]

Sorry for hi-jacking the thread ? ...but I've been meaning to ask ..
Whats the difference ,If any between this and flamed maple in the USA ,
Is it another species of Acer ?
If it is indeed the same species , are there any differences in hardness or workability.
This has got to be one of the mostchatoyant ? woods available .
What percentage of trees in the UK display these affects ?
Presuming the flame is obvious from looking at the boules
"however you pronounce this ,, rhymes with pools ? "

judging from this video by Taylor guitars .... link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJMLE7G2IIk
Thanks
Good luck with your instrument Michelle

 

[custard]

Sycamore is a species of Acer, closely related to the Maple. It can get confusing because there is a different tree in the US that is also called a Sycamore, but that's closer to a Plane tree.

English Sycamore is similar in density to American maples from the west of the country, these tend to be the softer maples which incidentally tend also to have the best figure. The harder maples from Canada or the eastern USA can also be rippled, but in general the figure (ripple, fiddleback, flame, call it what you will) tends not to extend right across the board in these harder, eastern species.

English Sycamore is plenty strong enough for furniture making, I've made chairs from it that have stood up well to hard use.

I've never really thought about comparing chatoyance between timber species. You're right, heavily rippled Sycamore/Maple is pretty dramatic, but I've seen equally dramatic rippled Walnut, Ash, Sapele, Anigre, Satinwood, Blackbean and plenty of others. The real rarities in the Maple world are quilted figure and birds eye figure, these command higher prices than regular ripple. I've never seen quilted or birds eye Sycamore, that's not to say it doesn't exist just I've never encountered it. You can significantly boost the visual impact of rippled or curly timbers with certain finishing techniques, it's a personal view but IMO you can take this too far and the wood starts to appear too holographic to be natural.

Experienced veneer buyers can identify trees with potential while the tree is still standing, but they won't know for sure until the "opening cut" is made at the sawmill. On a few occasions I've had really experienced foresters and veneer experts point out features in the bark that suggest a high possibility of extreme figure, blowed if I could notice anything different though!

I've no idea what percentage of Sycamores are rippled, I do know it's the most common highly figured timber in UK timber yards by a country mile. But by the same score it's only somewhere between 2 and 20% of forest hardwood trees that will yield top quality furniture grade timber in the first place. Even with closely managed plantation grown trees it may only be 30-50% of the trees that make the grade. The vast majority of hardwood trees end up as pulp, firewood, flooring, plywood, fence posts, charcoal, or something equally unglamorous. So, relatively common or not, you might still only be talking one Sycamore tree in a hundred or more that's both top furniture grade and rippled. Not good odds if you're covetously eyeing up a Sycamore in your neighbour's garden!

You're right, "boule" rhymes with pool.