"Now this is amazing wood..."
Ancient Kauri
An ancient kauri "Ice Age Jazz" guitar from Slaman Guitars
Bob,
You may remember sending Ancient Kauri to the Netherlands some 6 months ago. I have made it into a wonderful looking and sounding archtop guitar "Ice Age Jazz". It was wonderful to work with the kauri, there's truly no other wood like it.
I used a quartersawn board for the top and slabsawn for the back. The sides came from the Luthiers Mercantile and blended beautifully with the back. The neck is 3 piece kauri from your wood. Working the wood was an awesome experience. To shape wood with that history, incredible. When working with power tools the wood has a very fine dust, almost smoke. When first planing and joining the boards on my power planer, i switched it off because I thought the engine was on fire ....... smokey..........!!! Working with hand tools was great, you have to take your time, and adapt to the characteristics of the kauri. I sanded all the way with Micromesh from 1500 till 12000 grit and that really makes the wood come alive.
Thanks again for selecting such great boards. I can make three more guitars, and as soon as i have a commission for an Ice Age Jazz i will order more wood. Parts are made in mammoth ivory, i thought that would be a nice touch. The guitar sounds the way it looks, rich cognac sounds, classic archtop jazz sound, round and smooth, much sustain, really a joy to play.
Thanks again for making it possible to work with ancient kauri.
best regards,
~Daniel Slaman