As you progress, photos, photos, photos, please.
TIA
Steve
__________________________________________________________________
From: Alfred Eberle <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, May 8, 2012 11:58 AM
Subject: [LUTE-BUILDER] Re: What about pear wood?
I'll chime in here and mention that I've recently begun a lute with a
bowl made
of lightly-figured Swiss Pear. This is the first time I've used it for
a lute
bowl. I sourced and purchased a seasoned 'slab' of pear tree, enough
for four
lute bowls, six lute necks, and numerous bridges and pegs. In density
and
hardness (and behavior) it seems closest to Big Leaf Maple. Bending
has so far
been fairly easy, with the usual care needed when bending figured
wood. It'll
be a while before the results are audible, but so far it's been
pleasant and
stable to work with.
I did some tests on scraps of this wood for the finish. I found that
with an
oil varnish the finish is very nice, but looks a little bit 'dirty'.
French
polishing with shellac has produced very beautiful results - looks
cleaner and
there's a bit more visual pop of the figure than with the oil varnish.
I'm using holly spacers between the pearwood ribs. With finish applied
the
color of the pear is a delicious warm red brown which contrasts well
with the
holly spacers.
It's definitely tricky to source the figured wood in dimensions large
enough to
cut into lute ribs - I was very fortunate to find a piece that was a
little over
six feet in length x 19" wide x 14/4 in thickness. But oh so worth
it. If
anyone needs the source I got my pearwood from, please let me know
offlist and
I'll be happy to give you their contact info. I believe they have at
least one
more slab near the dimensions of the one I bought.
Alfred
in the Bay Area
----- Original Message ----
From: David Brown <[1][email protected]>
To: Timothy Motz <[2][email protected]>
Cc: [3][email protected]
Sent: Tue, May 8, 2012 6:21:57 AM
Subject: [LUTE-BUILDER] Re: What about pear wood?
Hello Timothy and Alexandros,
I would tend to disagree that steamed Swiss pear is more dense and
harder
than hard maple. I would describe it as closer to a softer maple but
with
different qualities and specifications support this.
I would describe it as a very "creamy" wood with a very fine grain and
an
absolute (no pun intended) pleasure to work and carve. It is a fairly
stable
wood. You can find it with a wavy figure and sometimes slightly curly.
I use
it regularly and it makes a very nice lute bowl. It is easy to find,
but be
sure you don't get "Australian" pear as I've seen it listed. This is
much
harder to work than Swiss pear. Pear from the US is harder to find, but
is
also a wonderful wood. I have a whole trees worth that was cut from a
19c.
farm site that was destined to be terra-formed by the interstate
system.
As a somewhat obtuse historic reference, the Este harp which was built
around 1581 has some parts made of pear and others of curly maple.
Many rosette makers use it as the carved "frame" for the parchment and
wood
rosettes. At one point, many makers used it for pegs. It was often used
for
blocks for prints.
Sincerely and respectfully,
David
David B. Brown, Luthier
-----Original Message-----
From: [4][email protected]
[mailto:[5][email protected]] On Behalf
Of Timothy Motz
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2012 8:27 AM
To: Alexandros Tzimeros
Cc: [6][email protected]
Subject: [LUTE-BUILDER] Re: What about pear wood?
Alex,
Pear is both denser and harder than hard maple, so it would make a fine
bowl
for a lute. I don't know how easily it bends, but since Mustafa says
it's
used for ouds, it must bend decently. The one time I used it was for a
flat-backed instrument, so I didn't have to bend it. It took forever
to
sand it down to the proper thickness on my little sander, but it
certainly
helped project the sound. I think it's used a lot for wooden flutes
and
recorders.
I would think the reasons it's not used more is because it doesn't have
much
of a figure and isn't as dramatic looking as the tropical hardwoods and
at
least in the US it's rather scarce and expensive. There are no
old-growth
rain forests of European pear to clear-cut. I've never seen it in my
local
hardwood dealer's stock. The pear that I used was from Luthier's
Mercantile
and I've never seen it in their list of available back and side woods
since
that one time.
Tim
On May 8, 2012, at 2:04 AM, Alexandros Tzimeros wrote:
> Hi dear all,
>
> after sorting out the disadvantages of mahogany in lute construction,
> can we discuss about pearwood? It is a wood that I rarely see being
used
in lutes.
> The point is that I like it a lot but I'm a bit hesitant to use it.
> Any opinions?
>
> Thanks,
> Alex
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
> [7]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
References
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3. mailto:[email protected]
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5. mailto:[email protected]
6. mailto:[email protected]
7. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
