I really really sincerely hope you all are just pining for some (a lot of) all maple ukuleles. Because I got a couple of stumps of maple from my aunt’s garden. I was about to quarter them with the help of my brother and his nifty sawmill, but then I thought, how thin slices can we make on this beast?
And the answer is pretty thin! I set the thickness to around a quarter of an inch, didn’t want to risk going to an eighth. The saw has a setting which divides in 1/8” and I want some extra meat before drying the slices. I know it’s more common to let wood dry in larger sizes and then resaw, but my table bandsaws are all less capable than this one when it comes to power and the ability to saw straight.
First quarter yielded these. Try to imagine the number of tops, backs and sides are in this set.
After slicing quartersawn slices off the quarters, a large wedge with the bark still on remains. Some careful sawing gave me two by fours with the grain parallel to the long faces, you get it - neck blanks!
And would you look at this. (And would you not look at the two round logs at the bottom, those are for a giant marimba for my wife’s workplace.) Anyway, some 30 slices over one meter long and around 13 - 15 centimeters wide, and the neck blank blanks for I don’t know how many necks.
All stickered and stacked, in the shade for drying. It will of course take some time but when it’s ready I could start a wee industry.
Hoping you and everyone you know really really want some maple ukes. And hoping they sound good, who knows, eh?
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