Spalted Hickory

[Jeff Mills]

I have a small amount of KD 4/4 spalted hickory, maybe 25 BF, man the stuff looks really nice . I'm wondering what to make out of it, I was thinking some kind of shadow box or maybe a wall cabinet, any ideas?

Thanks

[DaveO]

Do a Krenov styled chest on legs, especially if you have some pieces that you can book match. Or if that isn't your style a wall cabinet could show case the best pieces well.

Dave

[FredP]

well.... you could use it to dull all your blades and bits, but my guess is you'll be doing that already. so why not a toy chest for the newest grandbabies?

[Jeff Mills]

Ok so I just got off the phone with one of my son's and figured out what I'm going to do with this little bit of spalted hickory I have. He's quite a drummer actually could go professional if he got the right break. Set any istrument infront of him and within a few hours he'll be playing something on it.

So why not make a block set for his drum kit? I don't think it would be too difficult really. Seven 2x2 blocks x" long with a hole in each one. One for each note of the C scale A B C E D F G. Just need to determine the hole diameter and depth that will give me which note, my pitch tuner should be able to help me here or I could use my bass for resonance and tune them that way. Once I figure the key of C out, I might could do a set for different keys? Kind of like playing glasses filled with varying amounts of water - right?

Anyways he should be able to beat the snot out of hickory and not have to worry much about them breaking on him.

Any thoughts or guidance (plans would be nice) or should I just wig it?


Thanks

[truckjohn]

you mean like Marimba bars....

Those sorts of things are usually made of low damping/high density super duper hard woods like Brazilian Rosewood, Honduras Rosewood, Granadillo, Wenge, Pernambuco, Cocobolo.... you know.. that crazy expensive sort of stuff that Doesn't grow in North America.

North American woods that I would recommend are:
Osage Orange
Black, Yellow, and Honey locust
and maybe even some of that super dense, hard White or Live oak if you found the right piece...

Here is a little exercise....

Cut a 1' long 1" x 1" board of that hickory, plane it smooth on all sides and give it a tap.. Try holding in various places to see if you can get it to ring. You are looking for some sort of pure musical sounding note.... rather than a mixed note sound with a woody thump... You are trying to find a good clear bell like "Ting" sort of note out of it rather than a muddy sounding "Ti-oing-lunk" or worse... "Clunk" sort of thing

Good luck on your quest.

John

[Jeff Mills]

Originally Posted by truckjohn

you mean like Marimba bars....

Those sorts of things are usually made of low damping/high density super duper hard woods like Brazilian Rosewood, Honduras Rosewood, Granadillo, Wenge, Pernambuco, Cocobolo.... you know.. that crazy expensive sort of stuff that Doesn't grow in North America.

North American woods that I would recommend are:
Osage Orange
Black, Yellow, and Honey locust
and maybe even some of that super dense, hard White or Live oak if you found the right piece...

Here is a little exercise....

Cut a 1' long 1" x 1" board of that hickory, plane it smooth on all sides and give it a tap.. Try holding in various places to see if you can get it to ring. You are looking for some sort of pure musical sounding note.... rather than a mixed note sound with a woody thump... You are trying to find a good clear bell like "Ting" sort of note out of it rather than a muddy sounding "Ti-oing-lunk" or worse... "Clunk" sort of thing

Good luck on your quest.

John

After doing a little research, I concluded I'm going to make a set of temple blocks --->
http://www.percussionsource.com/Prod...?prodid=201475
But only flat and square instead because I really don't like round wood much, ya know...