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Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: garyschuler on November 18, 2021, 03:33:56 PM

Title: Myrtlewood
Post by: garyschuler on November 18, 2021, 03:33:56 PM
Check out these slabs. Nice Myrtle.
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: KenH on November 18, 2021, 03:44:56 PM
Boy, howdy!   I'll say that's some special Myrtle!   I'd love a full-length-width slice of that about 1/8" thick to make a mountain dulcemore!!
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: garyschuler on November 18, 2021, 04:27:50 PM
Ken, i will keep you in mind. Might be able to spare a 1" piece. What length are ya looking for? Not guaranteed, but will see what i have left after my project's.
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: KenH on November 18, 2021, 05:13:54 PM
A 25" piece would be great (at least a hair over 24" which is the string length I use).
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: garyschuler on November 18, 2021, 06:17:12 PM
Ok Ken. I'll keep in touch.
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: Flem on November 18, 2021, 11:25:13 PM
Thats some beautiful Myrtle :thumbsup:
What are your plans for it?
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: garyschuler on November 20, 2021, 08:41:05 PM
Flem, i'm going to use mist for Tables and Countertops and the trim that is big enough will go for bow wood and other craft wood projects.
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: KenH on November 21, 2021, 09:18:24 AM
Here's  couple pix of an Anglo-Saxon Lyre I made a couple years back with a 1x8 x 39" plank of Oregon Myrtle for the body and a 1/8" thin Port Orford Cedar plank for the soundboard/top

[attachment=1,msg2982870]

[attachment=2,msg2982870]
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: Buemaker on November 21, 2021, 10:31:40 AM
Lyre looks great and Myrtle is really special.
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: Flem on November 21, 2021, 11:04:54 AM
Myrtle is special, but a lot more common than its mystique would imply. It grows all over California and a small area in Oregon and is known as California Bay Laurel. If you are traveling to that area, you can, if resourceful, pick up all you want for free. Not many folks milling or burning wood down there. I picked up all I had room for, few years back when visiting some friends. 
[attachment=1]
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: Roy from Pa on November 21, 2021, 11:59:07 AM
Ken, that is awesome..

:thumbsup:

Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: garyschuler on November 21, 2021, 03:25:18 PM
Nice Ken. !!
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: KenH on November 21, 2021, 04:06:08 PM
Thanks guys.  One of my other hobbies...
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: Mad Max on November 21, 2021, 04:08:07 PM
Nice slabs Gary
Nice job Ken :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: Longcruise on November 21, 2021, 04:50:04 PM
Beautiful workmanship on that lyre. :)
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: KenH on November 21, 2021, 08:00:03 PM
FWIW, here's another Lyre.  The first one is based on a finding at an archaeological dig near Oberflacht, Germany, dating back to the 700s.  This one is from a dig near Cologne dating back to the 800s.  The soundboard is spalted Mango, the body is Maple, and the bridge is carved Baltic Amber.  8" wide, 21" long...

[attachment=1]
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: garyschuler on November 21, 2021, 09:16:35 PM
Nice. What do they sound like. Guitar.? , Violin. Ukulele?
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: Flem on November 21, 2021, 09:44:59 PM
Sounds like a Pagan Bacchanalia
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: Shredd on November 21, 2021, 09:55:00 PM
  Nice stuff, guys...
Title: Re: Myrtlewood
Post by: KenH on November 21, 2021, 11:16:06 PM
They sound "soft" sorta like a uke, but not as high pitched.  They weren't used to sing along with -- that hadn't been invented yet!  Only 5 notes to the pentatonic scale, but no sequence of notes you pluck ever sounds bad together.  They were used as background music at feasts, and also by storytellers/bards to help them remember where they were when reciting long stories and sagas, as well a teaching far-flung people history, current events, and the rules of 'polite society'.