Local woods

France offers a remarkable diversity of wood species. So why import exotic woods? For ethical and ecological reasons, I refuse to do so.

“Eco responsible” labels exist, but unfortunately they are insufficient in terms of guarantees.

Of course, I would love to work rosewood, mahogany or ebony… But I prefer not to. Lots of local species are just great for what I do. Is a Stradivarius made of exotic wood?

The forests of Gabon, Madagascar and the Amazonian rainforest have already suffered enough from overexploitation. In the mean time, the French forest continues to grow, it may be time to leave these resources available to the inhabitants of these countries…

Recycled wood

It is essential for my articles to be made of perfectly dry wood and what better way to ensure this than old piece of furniture, ready to go to the trash? A good part of the wood I use is recycled, pieces of furniture whose condition would not justify a restoration, old parquet floors…

Only in these cases, I allow myself the use of exotic woods, always looking for old ebony piano keys, one key may become a pair of bridge pins. Wood that has often been dry for almost a century!

Sourcing

Depending on their end use, the wood can come from a local sawmill or from a private individual. Classified ads, especially for boxwood, a carpenter who ceases his activity, children who empty the dusty barn of the grandfather who died ten years earlier. That’s often how I find dry boxwood that is twenty, thirty or even fifty years old dry…

I also store a large amount of green boxwood in my cellar.

Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens)

Dense and very resistant wood

Boxwood is the most wear-resistant European wood, its density varies from 0.85 to more than 1. Our ancestors understood this and reserved for it the uses where mechanical resistance to friction was required. For example, the brakes of the first Parisian tramways were made of boxwood, the gear teeth of the Mont Dore funicular as well, and watchmakers made precision screwdrivers out of them… The rise of the metallurgical industry put a stop to its use. It is now considered an ornamental shrub, symbol of longevity.

The boxwood moth

The boxwood moth is the pest champion, in recent years it has been fatal to large numbers of young boxwood trees, and the old ones have not been spared. That said, the moth has recently been in decline, and old boxwood trees that one would have thought dead, without leaves, seem to come back to life. I could see it with my own eyes, small green leaves coming out of the main trunk, which had not seen a single one for two years. But for how much longer? Nature’s auxiliaries, insects and birds in particular, are constantly seeing their populations decrease, in alarming proportions, they are natural predators of pests and are disappearing. Nature is in permanent balance, except when homo sapiens decides to take care of it for its own benefit.

A very slow-growing wood

It is certainly its extremely slow growth that gives it its qualities. A trunk of ten cm in diameter has an average age of one hundred years… Yes, it’s one mm of growth per year on the diameter! This can vary according to the growing conditions (humidity, exposure, substrate), an exposed boxwood will grow less quickly than its neighbour at the bottom of a misty valley and with roots close to a stream.

This leads to extremely tight annual circles, and sometimes almost invisible! Once polished, boxwood can be as smooth as marble, no open grains, no crevices between its veins. Although denser, ebony can’t say the same!!

Service tree is a little-known wood that nevertheless has great mechanical qualities, not to mention its aesthetics, a grain tending to reddish-brown once polished. Highly resistant to wear, it was used for the manufacture of plane soles. It has also been used in violin making for centuries… A species that is very resilient to climate change, let’s plant some!! I almost only use it for slides.

Ash (Fraxinus)

Ash is a very common species in France, it can be very light in color, almost white (common ash) or darker and have a very variable veining in shades (olive ash). Its resistance to wear makes it the preferred species for stair treads. I use it for the tables of my washboards.

Walnut (Juglans regia)

It too can have very different veins from one strain to another, from very light brown to very dark brown, its grain can also vary. No tree is identical to its closest cousin, the walnut tree is proof of this. The photo below shows three walnut slabs from three different trees. It smells delicious when you work it!

The common yew (taxus baccata)

Yew is a potentially toxic wood when you work it, so it is important to protect yourself from its fine dust. Its leaves are very toxic, a few small branches can kill a horse or a cow, it is very rare to find them at the edge of the meadows. It is preferred to cemeteries, perhaps because its roots do not turn over graves, they plunge vertically underground, or is it for its evergreen foliage, which was already a symbol of eternity among the Celts? Its wood is magnificent, with a very marked and colorful vein, honey! Its sapwood (outer part of the trunk, much softer) is very white.

Le Chêne (Quercus)

There are many species in France, very large ones and much more modest ones in size. A noble wood used since the dawn of time from carpentry to cabinetmaking. Its colours and veining again differ from one tree to another. The holm oak is remarkable for its higher density than its cousins, its veining can sometimes seem striped or marbled. It is very little used in crafts, because of the small dimensions of its trunks, which are rarely straight, yet it is very resistant to wear (plane soles). All my stock will end up in slides!

Wild cherry tree ( Prunus avium)

Wild cherry tree, a magnificent wood widely used in cabinetmaking, a sweet smell fills the workshop as soon as I work it. The wood is still quite soft, but it nevertheless offers a magnificent grain and colour, tending towards red. It is out of the question to use it for parts subject to wear, but no problem to make trussrod covers, plates or potentiometer knobs. I remember the cherry wine that one of my aunts made, largely diluted with water, I felt like a “grown-up” when drinking it!

And many other species…

The list of all the species I use would be very long to establish, plum (photo 1), pear, beech, elm among the medium-hard woods, black locust (photo 2), olive, maple or dogwood for the more resistant woods. Very few softwoods, too soft, too light for my creations. But there are uses in luthery that reserve a very special place for them, especially for acoustic guitar tops, such as cedar or spruce, but they are then carefully sorted and chosen for a regular veining.