wood finish samples

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If I was silly enough to want to play about with different wood finishes, what's the best source for typical guitar woods (ash, alder) to use as samples? There are places online that will sell bowl blanks, or am I better going to a timber merchant? There are a few near me, but one seems to specialise in pre-fabbed stuff (doors etc., and structural timber), haven't checked the other yet.
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  • EdGripEdGrip Frets: 736
    There's a place near me that do bespoke hardwood stairs. I went in and said, "I'm making a guitar. Have you got a spare piece of ash I could use to test some finishes on?" 
    They did, and they ran it through the planer for me so I had a flat surface to start on. 
    As it turned out, the wood-dye acted very differently on the ash guitar body than that piece of ash (the scrap looked very much like you expect ash to look, but the guitar body didn't at all - it came out looking much more like you expect alder to look)

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    I had "pub tabletop" in mind when I began the project, but in the end it came out looking like an oil-finished Elvis Costello JM.
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  • imaloneimalone Frets: 748
    Thanks, that's a good move, I was wondering whether ash would be more of a specialist item.
    Not tempted to fit a neck on that 'scrap'?
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  • WezVWezV Frets: 16546
    ash is easy to get in the uk, swamp ash is more of a specialist guitar thing.

    most of the the european ash is much denser and heavier, I have made one guitar with it which was quite bright in comparison. but you never know, you could find a nice light piece that would make a nicer guitar

    american ash sold as swamp ash (or previously thrown away as punk ash because it was too soft for good furniture) tends to be much more porous so will take a finish differently.  Infact i have had pieces before that were incredibly light act acted like a sponge.   The high water content of the regions it grows in causes bloated cells = more air space once dry.   now swamp ash is a marketing term and tells you very little about actual weight or even how close to a swamp the wood actually grew

    ...

    whilst on the subject i have a theory that one of the reasons old stock mahogany is generally lighter may be because the main method of transporting mahogany through the forests was/is by river.  they must have taken the trees closest to the rivers first and these will have given lighter wood than the ones further in land
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    edited November 2013
    I made a travel guitar  out of European ash last year.
    Pretty difficult to work- tore out a lot, even with a very sharp plane.
    Soaked up a lot of danish oil.
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