Osage Orange back and sides set price

[Leftyprs]

Can anyone give an idea of what a perfectly or near perfectly quartersawn set of Osage Orange brings these days? Also what would a near perfectly quartered set with a WILD grain pattern would add to the price, as those kind of sets are quite a bit rarer. All sets are just about as clean and quartered as I've seen out of any wood, let alone Osage.

Thanks,

Brad

[Laurent Brondel]

Brad, I see no one has responded yet. It is hard to evaluate, but I would think a well quartered set of osage orange would bring about the same as a good set of EIR, around $100. Is the wood from the the US or south America? For figured sets, it's on a case per case basis and based on how much buyers are willing to pay.

[Burton LeGeyt]

For perfect quartered sets I would say Laurent is about right, I would expect to have to pay about $100. There isn't much precedent for figured Osage so there is no fixed price. I have 5-6 sets of quartered and tight fiddleback Osage and would price them at about $200. The backs are only 7" though, if they were dread size I would want more like $250-$300. No one may buy them of course, but since I have never seen them for sale before (and honestly never seen any other fiddleback Osage before) that is where I would start.

The American and Argentine are different with (in my experience) the American having a coarser grain. They both seem like excellent tonewood although I have yet to use it for a guitar.

I would love to see a photo of the sets you saw that were quartered and figured. The grain on Osage is normally very plain.

[Brackett Instruments]

All of the Osage Orange I've seen that was quartered well was pretty plain. It can have some streaks in the grain, but even with them it's still kinda....plain

[Tim McKnight]

If the highly figured set has brown veins in it then its a gamble. Osage has a propensity to crack along the brown veins but the yellow heartwood is very stable.

[RiloKiley]

This is a bit off topic, but I must admit that I am a bit curious about Osage Orange as a tonewood. I've read that it imparts a similar tone to Brazilian Rosewood. I found this a bit strange since it has a very different visual appearance from any rosewood that I've ever seen, in terms of color. Most woods that people compare to brazilian look at least somewhat similar to it, Cocobolo, Madagascar, Honduran Rosewood and so on.

Does it really sound similar to Brazilian when it looks so different?

[Brackett Instruments]

Looks have nothing to do with tone. To my ears tonewise, Osage Orange is more similar to Honduran Rosewood than Braz. Obvoiusly each set is different, as are builders. The owner of the guitar I pictured earlier is supposed to send me some sound clips. I'll post them when I get them.

[Bruce Sexauer]

I've read that Osage MEASURES very similarly to BRW, but I think it would be questionable to draw tonal conclusions from that possible fact. I have tried to build with Osage but run into catastrophic stability issues. . . twice, with entirely different material. This is a very rare situation for me, so it starts to look like a pattern.

[Alan Carruth]

Sorry to hear about the problems, Bruce. The only issues I've had building with Osage so far are due to the fact that it's so chippy: routing for the bindings is an adventure unless you pre-scribe the sides. I've had a lot worse stability problems with BRW.

I'm probably the guy who's measurements of the wood properties are being bandied about. So far the samples I've tested _are_ right in the range for BRW. My experience building with it suggests that that's a pretty good indicator of what the guitars will sound like, too. I have to say that I have not built as many as some folks have, and acknowledge that we may not yet know all the things we should be measuring in terms of predicting the sound. I'd also point out that people have a strong tendancy to listen with their eyes: Mad and Coco may sound more like BRW to them simply because they look more like it. In that respect the looks of Osage certainly work against it: how could anything that plain sound good? I did see an older Osage guitar a few weeks ago, and can attest that it ages to a much nicer color, but there's not much you can do about 'plain'. OTOH, plain straight grained BRW is much prized in some circles...

[Brackett Instruments]

I'm working on one right now. This appearence was the clients idea. He's a retired cabinet maker. I stained it with black alcohol dye, then wiped it off, leaving the grain black. I'm curious to see how it looks under varnish. I'm not sure if I like it or not. I suppose it's better than the plain yellow look.

[Tom West]

Looks fantastic to me . Much better then just plain. But that may just be me.....!
Tom

[Tim McKnight]

Woody,
Several years ago someone came up with a way to dye Osage to a very dark almost black color using a mixture of steel wool, salt and vinegar. If I remember correctly you allow the steel wool to dissolve in saltwater then add some vinegar to the soup, strain and apply to bare wood. I set some steel wool aside to dissolve in a bucket but forgot about it and never got back to trying it.

[fitness1]

I'll keep mine au naturale

As to the tonal characteristics, I've had quite a few Braz guitars here, and played a bunch more for long periods. None of them have come close to my "magic Sitka" and Osage OM.

Of course, other than the Diamond, Tim didn't build any of the others either



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[clinchriver]

Spectacular guitar.

Tim are you getting your Osage locally? Any information would be appreciated.

[Tim McKnight]

Originally Posted by clinchriver

Spectacular guitar.

Tim are you getting your Osage locally? Any information would be appreciated.

Yes, but it took me seven years of searching until I found a tree worth harvesting. I was able to find the tree about 20 miles from our shop, in an Amish horse pasture. They were glad to get rid of it so it was a win / win for all