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The End of an Era - Luthiers Mercantile is Closing It’s Doors

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Last week this popped up in my email, the famous Luthiers Mercantile is closing its doors for good! Sad news indeed! If you don’t know Luthiers Mercantile, or LMI, was THE place to buy materials to make all manners of chordophones (guitars, mandolins, etc.), tops, backs and sides, tuning machines, fret wire, glue, shellac, etc., etc. I first purchased tonewood from LMI back in 1992 when it was under different ownership than today, that was in the days when the company would mail you a small catalog printed on newspaper and you either called in your order or sent in the order form with a check. That first purchase was tonewood to make two mountain dulcimers, and at the time I asked that it be delivered to my parents house, I was living in a remote cabin somewhere in the Sierra Nevada of California, and one day while visiting my parents there was a call for me from Luthiers Mercantile. The voice at the other end of the line wanted to double check the address, he couldn’t quite understan
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"The Finest Spruce/Maple Guitar I Have Ever Played"

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I might hazard to say this could be one of the finest spruce/maple guitars I have ever played... Rich Savage, owner of Savage Classical Guitar This is Catalina , a guitar I completed in 2022. It is a double top classical guitar, the top is Engelmann spruce with a honeycomb Nomex core, with an inner veneer of Sitka spruce. The back and sides are flamed maple. SOLD! The back fillet and bindings are East Indian rosewood, the "Ramirez racing strip" in the Spanish cedar neck is East Indian rosewood with BW purfling. The scale length is 648mm. This guitar has sold at Savage Classical Guitar . Please click here to hear a recording and commentary by Rich Sayage, the owner of Savage Classical Guitar, of this guitar. Please visit his website for more information about this absolutely stunning guitar!  
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10 Tips for French Polishing

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Look, listen and do, never ask why! Kennosuke Hayakawa, master Japanese carpenter I started learning the technique of French polishing about seventeen years ago, I watched Ron Fernandez's video, French Polishing for Guitarmakers, 2.0 ., followed his instructions to the letter on a guitar and was stunned by the beauty of the finish! Before I purchased this video I had used several well known varnishes and various recipes gleaned from wood working magazines on my guitars, the resulting finishes were very disappointing. Yes, French, or English polishing, depending on who you learn from, can be a difficult technique to master, it requires much patience and many hours at the workbench practicing with shellac, alcohol and wadding wrapped with a piece of cloth.  A guitar back after the second session of French polishing Tip #1: Practice, practice, practice! Tip #2: Don't be afraid to experiment! Try different grades of shellac, try a 1lb cut versus and 2lb cut, use olive oil as a lubr
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The Prize Guitar for the 2023 Twisted Spruce Music Foundation Guitar Competition, Part One

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The guitar before being an instrument was a tree and in it the birds sang. The wood knew music long before it was a guitar. Atahulpha Yupanqui, guitarist and folk singer This year's prize guitar is a double top classical guitar! I finished assembling the body to the neck early in April and the guitar is waiting for bindings, fretboard, bridge, frets and a French polish finish. The top of this guitar is reclaimed old growth Redwood, sequoia sempervirens , is considered to be the tallest tree in the world, there are redwood trees at Humboldt State Park in California that are over four hundred feet tall!  Master luthier José Oribe began using redwood tops for some of his guitars 1967, and at one point over 80% of his orders were for redwood. Redwood lumber is strong, very stable dimensionally, it's voice has the warmth of cedar with the clarity of spruce. The back and sides are California Laurel/Oregon Myrtle, an evergreen hardwood tree that ranges from Southwestern Oregon southwa
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Classical Guitar Bracing, Some Thoughts

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Our observations have led us to a conclusion that some readers may find surprising: Specific elements of brace design, in and of themselves, are not all that important! One has only to look at the myriad designs employed on great guitars to recognize that there is no design secret that will unlock the door to world-class consistency. A great maker will probably build a great guitar no matter what brace designed is used. William R. Cumpiano, Guitarmaking, Tradition and Technology,  1987 There are many opinions among classical guitar makers and guitarists, especially the guitarists, on how a classical guitar top should be braced. The guitar makers base their opinions upon their experience using different patterns, and most guitarists opinions are based upon guitars that have played or what they have been told by a maker with a desire to sell more of his or her guitars.  So, what bracing pattern is best? An Antonio de Torres Jurado style seven strut fan brace? A Greg Smallman style lattic
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Classical Guitars, Sustainability of Tonewoods

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The industry has done too good of a job convincing the vast majority of guitar players that high end acoustic guitars must be made from rosewood, mahogany, ebony and spruce. And yeah, they work-but other woods work also. Chris Martin IV, Martin Guitars The traditional wood choices for classical guitar making were largely dictated by what was available in 19th century Spain, which is not a particularly useful criteria for choosing wood in 21st century England. Martin Woodhouse, luthier Sustainability of tone woods is topic that no classical guitarist wants to talk to me about, they change the subject or simply walk away. Many woodworkers I have met tell me that subject is taboo. No one wants to admit that there will be a day when all the wonderful old growth lumber that we have come to love will no longer be available.  I grew up with the lumber industry, it put me through college and employed many members of my extended family, but I watched feller-butchers and loggers clear the 50,000
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Making Spokeshaves

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There are times when I wonder if making my own hand tools is worth the time and effort, making a tool means time away from guitar making, but if the tool can increase my efficiency in building a guitar, then that time is not wasted. That is a very unromantic view towards making my own hand tools, it is very rewarding when the tool I made works right when I finish. I admit that over the last thirty years I have made several hand tools that didn’t work, those got tossed into the wood stove, a factory made tool was bought so I could get back to the work at hand. I decided to make a pair of very small spokeshaves using blades purchased from Hock Tools, the bottom shave has a California laurel body, the middle shave is cherry and I used East Indian rosewood for the wear plates. The big shave is one I made about twenty years ago using Eastern dogwood and a Lee Valley blade. After making these little shaves I am tempted to make a pair from rosewood for more heft and mass. The two little shave
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