Attention luthiers. Advice needed on tassie blackwood

Hi all. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

I recently acquired a few cubic meters of quite large tasmanian blackwood billets. Most are 100mm+ thick and anywhere from 100mm to 400mm wide (a big 400x400mm billet in there). Most around 1500mm long. It's really beautiful stuff but not necessarily useful in its current form for a lot of stuff. I've been thinking about milling some up for acoustic guitar backs and sides, guitar necks, solid body blanks and so on but due to having very limited guitar building experience, I thought i'd ask a few quick questions.

Ideal thickness and dimensions for acoustic guitar backs?
Ideal thickness and dimensions for acoustic guitar sides?
Ideal size for guitar neck blanks?


I've searched for current items for sale to see the dimensions but they tend to vary a little.

I plan on resawing a good amount of it down into 25mm boards, table leg stock and so on for myself but, thought if there is a market for it, i could mill some for the guitar makers out there too. I have all the necessary machinery to do so (14" resaw, 12" jointer, 25" drum sander, etc.

Thanks in advance.

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Originally Posted by hurcorh

Hi all. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

I recently acquired a few cubic meters of quite large tasmanian blackwood billets. Most are 100mm+ thick and anywhere from 100mm to 400mm wide (a big 400x400mm billet in there). Most around 1500mm long. It's really beautiful stuff but not necessarily useful in its current form for a lot of stuff. I've been thinking about milling some up for acoustic guitar backs and sides, guitar necks, solid body blanks and so on but due to having very limited guitar building experience, I thought i'd ask a few quick questions.

Ideal thickness and dimensions for acoustic guitar backs?
Ideal thickness and dimensions for acoustic guitar sides?
Ideal size for guitar neck blanks?


I've searched for current items for sale to see the dimensions but they tend to vary a little.

I plan on resawing a good amount of it down into 25mm boards, table leg stock and so on for myself but, thought if there is a market for it, i could mill some for the guitar makers out there too. I have all the necessary machinery to do so (14" resaw, 12" jointer, 25" drum sander, etc.

Thanks in advance.

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Have a look at suppliers like lmii.com and stewmac.com for typical sizings.

I'm interested, particularly in quartersawn neck blanks, but my own dimensional requirements are slightly different, and I can't commit to anything until probably February. I'm also happy to resaw and thickness myself so if you're looking to offload a few boards as is, the transport costs aren't excessive, and it's dry and stable stuff.

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Hi dpm, thanks for those links to Imii and Stewmac i'll check them out. I'm not home till Jan 20th anyway so i'm in no rush. Once home I can send you some images and i'll check the moisture content but it's been stored for quite some time. I'm not looking at moving a huge deal of it but if I don't move some, it'll take years to get through. Located in SA FYI..

I would be interested in some also, I’m in Strathalbyn so I could arrange collection in person when it suits. I have just got into Cigar box guitar making and would like to attempt some more. Cheers Cal


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I am definitely interested. I make guitar bodies and Blackwood is one of my preferred timbers. 170mm x 50mm boards would be pretty handy, or twice that wide if you had them. My only problem is that I am in Qld, so freight is expensive.

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Originally Posted by ajileguitar

I am definitely interested. I make guitar bodies and Blackwood is one of my preferred timbers. 170mm x 50mm boards would be pretty handy, or twice that wide if you had them. My only problem is that I am in Qld, so freight is expensive.

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I'm in Qld too so if this goes ahead we might be able to split freight costs. I also prefer that my body blanks are actual 50mm rather than the standard +/-46mm.

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Originally Posted by dpm

I'm in Qld too so if this goes ahead we might be able to split freight costs. I also prefer that my body blanks are actual 50mm rather than the standard +/-46mm.

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I think we should try and get together on this, if nothing else, it might save a little on freight. I'm between Gympie and Maryborough, about 2 1/2 hours north of Brisbane.

If you both want to work on a little "shopping list" together and get back to me, around the end of Jan I'll get to it. Will provide photos etc when I get back home after Jan 18.

Some of the stack...

Attachment 427452

Mmm Blackwood [emoji12]

I'll message both of you with my email address, someone will need to remind me

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