Info on different woods (including Mopane)

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 9:26 am

Here is some information that I received recently from Phil Bleazey.

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Mopani:-
Probably the nearest to the rosewoods of early instruments, both in looks and sound, it gives a good bright tone and blows up to a good volume quite easily and carries well in noisy environments (sessions). A stable wood, I have never had one returned due to distortion. Ecologically my preferred foreign timber, this is what my importer says:

"Mopani is a very under utilised timber mainly used for specialist applications like musical instruments so the volumes used are not massive (like Brazilian Mahogany 10 years ago). Also, what tends to happen when specialist logs like Mopani are felled, the impact on the enviroment around them is minimal. The logs are usually felled by gangs using primitive machinery and saws and the logs are usually dragged through the forest to roadside rather than the roadside being taken to the logs." This is why I try to use Mopani in place of Blackwood where I can convince customers to make the change.

African Blackwood:-
The flute players favourite, gives a good solid tone, not as lively as mopani, but quite loud. Recently cutters have started to move North into Tanzania due to depletion in South Africa with a resultant drop in quality. The organisation "Flora and Fauna" are asking makers to cut back on the usage of this material.

Yew:-
A less usual but very satisfactory wood for woodwinds, gives a sweet warm tone but not so loud, popular with players who play solo or "in the parlour"

Extract from "A Modern Herbal" by Mrs. M. Grieve F.R.H.S.

"YEW (Taxus Baccata)

Poisonous Parts: Leaves, seed and fruit
Habitat: Europe, North africa, Western Asia

Description. A tree 40 to 50 feet high, forming with age a very stout trunk covered with red-brown, peeling bark and topped with a rounded or wide-spreading head of branches; leaves spirally attached to twigs, but by twisting of the stalks brought more or less into two opposed ranks, dark, glossy, almost black-green above, grey, pale-green or yellowish beneath. The so-called fruit is bright red, sometimes yellow, juicy and encloses the seed.

No tree is more associated with the history and legends of Great Britian the the Yew. Before Christianity it was the sacred tree favoured by the Druids, who built their temples near these trees - a custom followed by the early Christians. The association of the tree with places of worship still prevails.

Many cases of poisoning in Cattle have resulted from eating parts of the Yew

Constituents: The fruit and seeds seems to be the most poisonous parts of the tree. An alkaloid taxine has been obtained from the seeds; this is a poisonous, white , crystaline powder, only slightly soluble in water; another principle, Milossin has also been found.

Uses: The wood was formerly much valued in archery for the making of long bows. The wood is said to resist the action of water and is very hard, and before the use of iron becames general , was greatly valued."

The above extract gives a good description of the tree. I know several instrument makers who use it and am myself extremely pleased with the light sweet sound produced. There is some bad press about the poisonous nature of the tree, however, one of my suppliers claims to eat the berries (not the seed) and is a very healthy man in his sixties, anyway you are not going to eat your flute, are you?

sturob · Post by **sturob** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 11:58 am

Well, the blackwood information is sort of, well, completely wrong. I don't remember ever reading that it grew in South Africa; it's almost always from Tanzania. A little grows in Kenya, and a lot grows in Mozambique.

It's worded politically to sway people away from blackwood and towards other cheaper stuff, perhaps. Cheaper and easier to work. Ooooh, I'm a cynic!

Stuart

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 12:04 pm

Try this for blackood:
http://www.blackwoodconservation.org/

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 12:17 pm

sturob wrote:Well, the blackwood information is sort of, well, completely wrong. I don't remember ever reading that it grew in South Africa; it's almost always from Tanzania. A little grows in Kenya, and a lot grows in Mozambique.

It's worded politically to sway people away from blackwood and towards other cheaper stuff, perhaps. Cheaper and easier to work. Ooooh, I'm a cynic!

Stuart

According to the website that G posted the comment given to me is completly correct. It says ABW USED to grow in SA and that harvesters are moving North. This correlates with the sites info.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 12:25 pm

Just to contribute: I asked a maker yesterday about figured maple, and he said that for as hard as it is, it doesn't bore cleanly, so one would need special reamers for that. He idly considered the idea of using a vacuum tank to inject linseed oil or paraffin deep into the wood -which is porous- and rejected it on a cost basis. He agreed that it was a shame, given the beauty of the wood, but time and experience has led him to stick with the classics.

FWIW.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 12:59 pm

Pardon; that ought to have been "have led".

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:02 pm

Another wood that has been used extensively for rec*rders and a little for flutes is olivewood. It's a wonderful wood, smells wonderful as you can imagine.

Several Australian woods have been used: lancewood, gidgee, Cooktown ironwood (which grows in Africa too).

Eldred Spell uses mountain mahogamy.

And of course the original post didn't mention boxwood or ebony, the most popular historical choices for flutes.

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:04 pm

'Mopani' is a better spelling than 'mopane,' isn't it?
That's how the word is pronounced, I believe.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:09 pm

I always pronounced it "mo-pa-nay"...

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:14 pm

mountain mahogamy

Would that be the connubial practices of certain Irish hillfolk?

Loren · Post by **Loren** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:16 pm

sturob wrote:It's worded politically to sway people away from blackwood and towards other cheaper stuff, perhaps. Cheaper and easier to work. Ooooh, I'm a cynic!

Stuart

I agree with the first sentance for sure! Can't completely agree with the second however - Blackwood is "easier" to work than the Mopane I've seen, which is much more prone to "tear out" when turning.

Loren

carrie · Post by **carrie** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:19 pm

Nanohedron wrote:Pardon; that ought to have been "have led".

First the hoi polloi, and now this????

Get a grip, man!

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:26 pm

Nanohedron wrote:
mountain mahogamy
Would that be the connubial practices of certain Irish hillfolk?

Are you thinking of mountain polygamy?

I forgot to say, treated m. mahogamy. He treats it with Tung oil under high pressure. Same has to be done for maple and fruitwoods like pear, apple, etc, because these woods absorb too much wood to be turned into flutes without being treated.

Dr. Spell by the way, has a new process where he uses epoxy instead of Tung oil (not an epoxy layer, actually forcing epoxy into the wood, before turning). This theoretically should create "wood" that's immune to moisture and temperature changes. The world waits...

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:43 pm

cskinner wrote:
Nanohedron wrote:Pardon; that ought to have been "have led".
First the hoi polloi, and now this????

Get a grip, man!

Time and wear take their toll (*whew* -swung that okay. *wipes sweat from furrowed brow*

).

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:46 pm

glauber wrote:Are you thinking of mountain polygamy?

No, MAHOgamy. I wondered if there was a regional specialty going on.