Myrtlewood

[garyschuler]

Check out these slabs. Nice Myrtle.

[KenH]

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!!

[garyschuler]

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.

[KenH]

A 25" piece would be great (at least a hair over 24" which is the string length I use).

[garyschuler]

Ok Ken. I'll keep in touch.

[Flem]

Thats some beautiful Myrtle
What are your plans for it?

[garyschuler]

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.

[KenH]

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

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[Buemaker]

Lyre looks great and Myrtle is really special.

[Flem]

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. 
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[Roy from Pa]

Ken, that is awesome..

[garyschuler]

Nice Ken. !!

[KenH]

Thanks guys.  One of my other hobbies...

[Mad Max]

Nice slabs Gary
Nice job Ken

[Longcruise]

Beautiful workmanship on that lyre.

[KenH]

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...

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[garyschuler]

Nice. What do they sound like. Guitar.? , Violin. Ukulele?

[Flem]

Sounds like a Pagan Bacchanalia

[Shredd]

  Nice stuff, guys...

[KenH]

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'.