Hatcher's Studio '20 #2

[Tim McKnight]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

Beautiful work as always Mark. I LOVE the old tools, especially that hand drill.

Seeing that log makes me scratch my head though. If its been laying in the silt for 7,000 years, I wonder how it fell ... on its own ... with such a nice even square cut on the end of the log?

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Carpinteria

Wow, Mark, what a spectacular collection of wood and tools! Thanks for sharing them! Dave

Thanks Carpinteria!

Originally Posted by The Bard Rocks

I don't think I have ever seen curly sitka. Incidentally, I like the bear claw better - and also the RW&B.

Yeah, curly Sitka is a rare one. I like all of them, it all depends on what you do with them that makes the difference.

Originally Posted by Tim McKnight

Beautiful work as always Mark. I LOVE the old tools, especially that hand drill.

Seeing that log makes me scratch my head though. If its been laying in the silt for 7,000 years, I wonder how it fell ... on its own ... with such a nice even square cut on the end of the log?

Thanks for commenting Tim. I imagine they just dropped from the flooding and maybe a bit of wind. I've seen tree trunks standing in new reservoirs and they seem to manage to stand dead for 15-20 years or so before they finally drop.
It looks like they are just doing a lot of prep work before they try hoisting up those very wet and delicate logs.

Here are a couple more unusual top sets I've gotten in lately. I really liked the look of the tri color Sitka tops so I looked for a some Western Red Cedar along those lines. Here are a couple pictures of on top I just got. The picture shows two options in aligning the sides;





I thought this cedar top with a natural sunburst looked great too;



I got a couple curly Port Orford Cedar tops like this one while I was at it;



Finally I have this King Billy Pine top. This is a hard one to get because it is so rare growing only in Tasmania. It's not pine, or spruce, cedar, cypress, fir, it's King Billy Pine left over from when Tasmania was part of Antarctica;



Thanks for viewing!
Mark

[Nemoman]

Wow--all of those tops look amazing, Mark!

Really dig the sunburst cedar and the King Billy!

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Nemoman

Wow--all of those tops look amazing, Mark!

Really dig the sunburst cedar and the King Billy!

Thanks Nemoman, I like those two also. the King Billy Pine doesn’t have the kind of stiffness I’d want to use on a larger guitar but it would make and has a reputation for making wonderful and intimate sounding parlour or other smaller 12 fret guitars.
That cedar is a prime sounding WRC top it would look great with Leapordwood binding and a number of backwoods.

thanks for commenting!
Mark

[Mark Hatcher]

Stepping back to the progress on the Josie small Jumbo Tree guitar. I am working on the neck now and we have selected out the woods. We have dark Honduran Mahogany that was milled about 35 years ago for the neck. The center laminate is cross grained Snakewood and it has curly Maple borders. The laminate on the back of the headstock will be from The Tree:



The Snakewood fretboard with be bound with The Fiddleback Tree binding and have a maple purfling so it will go well with the similar body binding. The headstock overlay will be Snakewood:



I just put on the fretboard binding so it it isn't shown yet.

On another note: I am usually working on about four guitars that are at staggerd starts so are always at different stages. I usually try not to post about more the one or two guitars at a time on these threads because it just gets to be a jumble.
I do want to make a comment about a Bloodwood guitar I'm working on.
I've been sweating bullets over bending the sides for this Greta GA model. Bloodwood is extremely hard, stiff and it tends to be brittle which does not bode well for an easy bend. I'm happy to report that I've had complete success in bending the sides on this!



So is it hard to bend, you may ask. I don't know. I've been bending sides for a long time now and I used every trick in my back of tricks right up front and it just didn't have an opportunity to show me!

Thanks for following along!
Mark

[j. Kinnaird]

Nicely bent bloodwood Mark. I notice that you have a Florentine cutaway rather than Venetian. Did the resistance to bending have anything to do with that?

John

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by j. Kinnaird

Nicely bent bloodwood Mark. I notice that you have a Florentine cutaway rather than Venetian. Did the resistance to bending have anything to do with that?

John

Thanks John, I have a Florentine cutaway because this is for a spec guitar. I don’t get near as many requests for Venetian cutaways.

I think it would be challenging to bend a tight Venetian cutaway. I hand bent the inside of the Florentine and it took some muscle for that turn. I think it would be possible though without having to resort to a laminated side.

Mark

[Mark Hatcher]

Here the fretboard bound and radiused for the Tree Josie sm jumbo;

[TomB'sox]

It would be tough to beat a snakewood fretboard for beauty. One of my favorite woods for fret boards and bindings as well.

[Erithon]

Mark, that fingerboard binding is remarkable. It looks like more of the burl? Such a lovely color contrast with the Snakewood. And even though both are heavily figured, it isn't too busy. I think the Holly? purfling line helps there. It's subtle, but anchors transition between the binding and the fingerboard.

[Archaic Guitars]

I like the color pallete in this picture. So many subtle shades of reds and browns that sit perfectly against the white soundboard. Seeing the shadow cast by the 3D rosette accent makes me wonder how high it sits above the soundboard. Is it as high as the fretboard?

[Lonzo]

The snakewood color in combination with the binding and the fretboard end shape look very good and find a natural complement in the art deco piece across the soundhole, both in shapes and color combinations !

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

It would be tough to beat a snakewood fretboard for beauty. One of my favorite woods for fret boards and bindings as well.

Snakewood is a great looking wood. It polishes up wonderfully and is as hard as nails for a fretboard.

Originally Posted by Erithon

Mark, that fingerboard binding is remarkable. It looks like more of the burl? Such a lovely color contrast with the Snakewood. And even though both are heavily figured, it isn't too busy. I think the Holly? purfling line helps there. It's subtle, but anchors transition between the binding and the fingerboard.

Thanks Erithon, The binding is from the "Fiddleback Tree" like on the body of the guitar. In this picture you're looking at the edge of it and it's dry so we're not seeing all the curl that is there.
I agree that mixing too many figured woods can be a mess. To avoid that when I mix figures I try to differentiate them by scale and uniformity. So a very orderly curl on the Fiddleback Tree contrasts with the more random tortoise shell quilting of the The Tree. The small figure in the Snakewood looks more like texture.

Originally Posted by Archaic Guitars

I like the color pallete in this picture. So many subtle shades of reds and browns that sit perfectly against the white soundboard. Seeing the shadow cast by the 3D rosette accent makes me wonder how high it sits above the soundboard. Is it as high as the fretboard?

Thanks Tim, I like the color combo too. There's a lot to keep track of in the design of this guitar. The 3D rosette accent is maybe only 3/32" high. The light is low and the shadows are long in the photo.

Originally Posted by Lonzo

The snakewood color in combination with the binding and the fretboard end shape look very good and find a natural complement in the art deco piece across the sound hole, both in shapes and color combinations !

Thanks Lonzo. When we get the truss rod cover on there this whole neck design will really come together!

On another note. Since I cut those Leopardwood back and side sets I've really been paying a lot of attention to medullary rays in hardwoods. As it happens my student in Tasmania sent me this gorgeous set of quartersawn Casuarina Sheoak:



Here's a close up of those incredible medullary rays:



Casuarina Sheoak is a very hard and stiff wood for it's weight. It's weight is right in the middle of the pack of commonly used back and side woods. It's between Padauk and Zebrawood. It has a reputation for a quick loud response and a leaning toward fundamentals.

Thanks for viewing!
Mark

[Erithon]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

On another note. Since I cut those Leopardwood back and side sets I've really been paying a lot of attention to medullary rays in hardwoods. As it happens my student in Tasmania sent me this gorgeous set of quartersawn Casuarina Sheoak

You have a student in Tasmania? Tell us more! Is this a sort of virtual apprenticeship?

[Nemoman]

Beautiful wood--your closeup pic really shows it off!