Michael Schreiner |
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| I am conscientious about maintaining my stock of instrument materials, sometimes to an extreme. This is a tale of my fondness for my wood. Around 1980 several colleagues, guitar builders, in collaboration with an exotic wood dealer imported a 16-foot log of East Indian rosewood. Their intention was to quarter the log and then to manufacture backs and sides for acoustic and classical guitars. An 8-foot section of the log did eventually become guitars. The remaining section sat outside the wood dealer's building that was then located in a decaying downtown area of Toronto. Since the log was nearly 3 feet in diameter and weighted hundreds of pounds it was unlikely to be stolen. When the area underwent urban renewal the wood dealer moved to the suburbs and his former location became a brew pub. After several years the log was cut into slabs or "flitches", a method which yields the maximum amount of usable wood. Usually, wood cut in this manner is made into table tops. While most of the flitches are unsuitable for musical instruments the center slabs are choice pieces. I purchased several of these in the early '80's and have used them for lute ribs over the years. The last piece measuring 2" x 24" x 72" sat against the wall behind Sue's chair for the last 11 years. I have a series of theorbos with rosewood bowls to make over the next year and I felt it was time that this old friend helped out. I rented a skill saw and cut the slab into several managable pieces. I chose one and started cutting it into lute ribs. | ||||||||||
copyright michael schreiner 2008 |
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