Source for Thin Figured Walnut?

[Gilmourisgod]

Planning a walnut neck-through build. I got some nice 1" thick walnut stair treads, decent grain, but not much figure, so I plan on laminating a figured 1/4" thick cap onto the top faces and using the treads as a decent looking back and for neck lamination strips. Id'd like to use something like curly or claro walnut, something with a lot of chattoyance (?) for the top plates. Since it only needs to be 1/4" thick or so, I don't really want or need thicker stock, and i don't have a bandsaw with enough vertical capacity to resaw much. I suppose I could plane down 1x stock, pretty wasteful. Any leads on suppliers in Massachusetts or via mail order appreciated.

 

[Rodent]

budget?

 

[Gilmourisgod]

budget?

Let's start with nonexistent and work up from there! For obvious reasons, the price of highly figured boards goes up exponentially depending on width, length, and thickness. In my case the ideal board dimensions would be 1/4" thick x 6" wide x 20" long for one board, and 1/4" thick x 6" wide x 16" long for the other, or a single board 36" long. I've seen lot of gunstock blanks and other pieces on Ebay, all way thicker than I need, and usually too short or too narrow. It will come down to getting the best figured boards I can find for a reasonable price, hopefully less than $100. My local lumberyards have only plain-sawn outrageously overpriced walnut, the nearest decent yard is a 45 minute drive.

 

[Scoops]

I don't recall seeing highly figured walnut in a thickness you are looking for.

Here's a good place for walnut
Pine Creek Wood Company-

You could just reach out to some of the online vendors to see if they have re-sawing capabilities

 

[Scoops]

Also, there is a LARGE amount of figured walnut all over the place if you want to go the 1/42" veneer route

 

[T_Bone_TL]

I'd go for veneer laminated to something affordable (even if you had to plane it down from 1" wastefully affordable).

 

[charlie monroe]

This eBayer has all kinds of thin stock in lots of species: monitorseller on eBay

You may also look for some back and sides sets for acoustics. These will run around 1/8"+ not usually 1/4". Not sure that this would matter since you are laying them over solid walnut anyway.

 

[Rodent]

this should be close to what you're looking for at $75 for the bookmatched set

Gilmer Wood Company

 

[Scoops]

Goby as well

Black Walnut Acoustic Sets

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Gilmer! Should have thought of them, that's where I got my hard rock maple neck and body wood for the Hossenfeffer. Thanks All for suggestions

 

[mapleglo]

this should be close to what you're looking for at $75 for the bookmatched set

Gilmer Wood Company

I don't know that I've ever seen figured walnut. Now that I have, I want some!

 

[Gilmourisgod]

That's the plan for the Hossenfeffer 2, walnutglo with a figured top and the 1" thick walnut slab stock I have for the back. I got some highly figured walnut stock from flooring leftovers, but none of it wide enough to use for this project.

 

[Rodent]

I don't know that I've ever seen figured walnut. Now that I have, I want some!

it's a perfect pairing with figured Maple

 

[HaMMerHeD]

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