African Blackwood B&S

[David L]

OK, I've been called so I guess I'll have to show my hand. (are we playing poker or building guitars?). This is the set of African Blackwood that I have. I had to cough up 6 bills for this set, that is why I'm going to wait until guitar no. 5 or 6, get a few under my belt, less chance to eff this set up! The other side is bookmatched quite nicely.

Here are some pictures of the back.

David L

Edit: I posted this on a new thread so as not to tie up Darryl's OO Lutz thread.

[David L]

Here are the sides.

David L

[David L]

Finally the rosette square that I got from the Zootman.

David L

[tippie53]

ooooooooo ahhhhhhh

[darren]

droooooooooooool

[Darryl Young]

Looks great David! That set should make a great guitar. Is the sides partially flatsawn? Difficult to tell from the pic.

What wood looks good with it for bindings etc.? I'm trying to picture what a finished guitar would look like.

[David L]

The sides are quartered on the outside edges (in the picture) going to rift at the centers.

David L

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!
Do you want me to bend those sides for you David? NOT. :>)

Kevin

[johnnparchem]

David have you had that wood for six years? Your set is really nice.

I think this is African Blackwood, but I am not sure I picked up a bunch of stuff on Ebay. I have been thinking of running a name the wood contest with the various b&s sets that I have, only I will not know what it is.

[David L]

John, I have had my set for about eight months. From the pictures that you posted it looks very much like African Blackwood, although I can't be sure. A lot of samples display the creamy colored sapwood like yours does. Blackwood tree trunks don't usually get very large in diameter so often times you will see sets with sapwood. Some people prefer the sets with sapwood especially when oriented as a center stripe as yours is on the back plate. Now, I don't proport to be an expert in wood identification (or anything else) I just happen to have aquired a lot of different samples of wood over the past few years to use in various small woodworking projects and thought it wouild be fun to run the pop quiz series. The fact is that if I didn't already know what all those woods were I probably wouldn't have correctly identified half of them. I have read a lot about woods and viewed a lot of pictures of lots of different kinds of wood and have just a little bit of experience working with some of them.
Here are some things you can do to help to see if it is indeed African Blackwood. Blackwood is heavy, extremely heavy, probably heavier than anything else in your shop including most if not all other Rosewoods. In fact it is so heavy that it doesn't float on water. Next you can blow a heat gun on a small area of the wood surface keeping it moving so as not to burn the wood. Being a Rosewood, Blackwood is naturally oily, heating it up will bring some small patches or spots of oil to the surface. I see that in one of your pictures you wetted the wood, when I wiped my Blackwood with DNA and a paper towel the oil from the wood turned the paper towel a nasty black color very quickly, also when Blackwood is wet with DNA a lot of the marbling color of the wood gets lost and the wetted board turns almost solid black with a slight deep, dark purplish hue that is very lustrous (you can almost see "into" the wood). Lastly you can try the tap tone test. I am in unfamiliar territory here, but Darryl said in relation to the Blackwood FB that he just got that it has a real nice ring tone and has a lot of sustain so you might try that.
Any wood (that I know of) that may look like Blackwood (I don't think there are many candidates) that isn't Blackwood will not display these other properties.
I have owned several pieces of Blackwood and looked at hundreds of pictures of it and looking at your pictures
I would say that more likely than not it "is" African Blackwood.

David L