Old Work

I was just looking through some old pictures of some work I did years ago and found a few of the first Octave Mandola that I made. I did this during my second year at University, it wasn't part of the course so I spent my evenings (alot of them at that point) making this!

I'm going to start making carved top Mandolins in the coming months as this was the instrument that first got me hooked on instrument making. Watch this space!

New Wood

I was joined by Stefan Sobell on the weekend to look at some boards of reclaimed Honduras Rosewood that where brought to Edinburgh in 1979 from Belize. I bought 5 boards of rosewood and 2 boards of Belizean Mahogany which I may consider using for necks. This was the first rosewood board deep cut into back and side sets.
I thought the wood was beautiful before I saw the water marks and the spider webbing. Both rare in Honduras Rosewood. I will be offering these sets as 3 piece backs (2 Honduras wings with a Indian or Madagascan center strip) to utilize this beautiful wood. The sets have a strong ring when tapped, similar to good Rio Rosewood.