estebanana -> RE: Hinoki Cypress- Port Orford Cedar or Lawson Cypress (Jan. 10 2016 15:29:26)
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Triple M, Hey thank you for the attention on the hinoki front. And I have to apologize for being tardy on answering your note on my blog. I have been in a time crunch the last week coming out of the holidays and with limited internet time, but I do intend on answering your note. Hinoki is a worthy wood for making blancas, and so far it stacks up in it's own way with other woods used for blancas. It really has a vibe like the best Port Orford, and English Sycamore, it is also like the very light batches of Mexican Cypress I've had which make hot guitars. A few Japanese makers employed hinoki as a soundboard material, but so far I have not heard of a guitar made with hinoki and spruce of cedar top by any maker here. I also think Jim Frieson is beginning to play with some Hinoki, so the more better I say. The Japanese dealers, I predict, will be skeptical of hinoki, they supply to a mostly conservative type of buyer, but I think there will be players who are strong individuals who will step out and buy direct from my shop. This is to say that yes hinoki is a treasured wood and used in special architectural projects , but most people think of it as a common, plentiful wood. So for building a temple some hinoki could be used, but for a guitar it seems like a newer idea that might need some open minds to test and bring forth. Americans, and probably Aussies will take to it faster I think, as they are willing explore non traditional woods and be more adventurous in general about letting the guitar maker build what he or she is attracted to. Hinoki is should also be said is quite variable in softness or hardness and stiffness and density. It has much more material latitude than most other woods I've worked with. That means I looked through a couple rooms full of planks and took the best suited to guitar making. Lucky for me there is much,much more good stuff to select from at the yard. The real problem is finding a good resaw man who will not waste as much wood when slicing ribs. The yard has a band saw about 12' tall they use for ripping down big slabs and logs, perfectly suited for ripping down back stock at 4mm, but that is a waste for ribs because I hand plane them to just under 2mm and then scrape and sand. Once I find the resaw guy who can nail it I can rip down more board stock. But as it is now I have several guitars' worth of high grade backs and sides. I also ripped down some really old Red Oak, which is actually honey colored, and I'm aiming to us it as binding on dark rosewood guitars as a light on dark binding. I like lighter bindings on dark woods, but sometimes maple seems too bright, so this honey color on say indian rosewood might look very mellow and natural. I'm incorporating local materials as much as they fit the need and are beautiful for the purposes. When you begin looking around you you can see great beauty in what gets overlooked as common. The rift sawn red oak really surprised me in how much depth the wood has under finish, much prettier to me than the American oaks. I've learned more than I could or care to say about what seems exotic to whom. Japanese people often covet things from the US that seem trivial or commonplace to us as Americans, while Americans will call any ragged scum bucket chunk of rice topped with raw fish a sushi. Well, well, there is the story.
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