Quilted Tops how are they made

Chris-Mason

looking at one of my guitars the other evening, in the light the quilted maple top looks like a 3d effect.
Does anyone know how they create quilted tops, is the way the wood is cut, is the wood chemically treated.
Just curious
Saddle and Nut

MikeM

Watch this man.. Very interesting ?

=

The 3d effect is referred to as chatoyancy.

singemonkey

From what I understand, patterns in maple are caused by fungus within the wood. Quilt is just an extreme version. Polish it up and voila.

Obviously on 99% of guitars with quilt appearance it's just a very thin veneer over less fancy wood.

EttieneB

yeah man thats about than just get a piece of curly maple and polish and sand and polish till u can see your reflection!!!

Bob-Dubery

There are various figures that occur in maple (and other woods) and they all amount to a distortion of the grain. Some of these figures are only visible in flat sawn wood.

I'm told that there is no way to know if a particular log will have a quilt or a birdseye or whatever figure without cutting it, though I've also read that them what has the right sort of experience get clues from the bark.

You also get these kinds of figures in other woods. See pictures of Racman's custom bult acoustic with "moonscape" sapele (somewhere on the forum). You sometimes get "bear claw" in spruce.

Also do you remember my Smoothtalker (since sold)? It had a slight tiger stripe figure. You could just, just see some kind of figure in the "raw" top (which is why I picked that one), and Mervyn's finish bought the figure out. Possibly if he'd given the top a high gloss finish or "popped" the top the figure would have been a lot more apparent.

MikeM

There's no certainty about what causes figuring. Supposedly birdseye is a fungus or sickness of sorts, but regular flame/quite is supposedly either genetic (I think it was 1% or 0.1% of trees have it) or environmental (stresses, wind, that sort).

Wizard

There's a wood called "cotton wood" which was grown to make matchsticks.
It's one of the cheapest woods - in the same ballpark as pine.
I have seen tables made from it with the most incredible 3D effect.
Not suggesting it's good for guitars.

Chris-Mason

Thanks for the info really interesting. Bob what do you mean re popping the grain, obviously to make the grain more pronounced this must be a chemical process. saddle and nut

MikeM

There are a few ways to "pop" grain.. Either by staining the wood, and then sanding it. The regular grain and figuring respond differently when you sand it (Angles of the grain), so you can sand it back so that the flame is either darker or lighter than the rest of the wood. From there typically one would use shellac or french polishing to enhance the flame even more. Often this is covered with lacquer which brings a little more depth and "3d"ness to the figuring.

I posted some process photos here of my strat being finished, so you can see exactly how it goes from naked wood, to a finished body.

Gearhead

The way I see it, the grain absorbs the stain differently in different locations. It responds the same to sanding (wears away) but the grain that absorbed the stain deepest wil show stained whereas the other grain just goes back to unstained. You can then stain again in another color if desired, before continuing with the sanding sealer.

Neon-Gecko

Gearhead wrote: The way I see it, the grain absorbs the stain differently in different locations. It responds the same to sanding (wears away) but the grain that absorbed the stain deepest wil show stained whereas the other grain just goes back to unstained. You can then stain again in another color if desired, before continuing with the sanding sealer.

That's where grain densities come into play. Take a piece of Alder for instance. It has a softer, more absorbent grain pattern similar to Ash, while the harder, figured grain pattern will allow stains to penetrate to a lesser degree. When the stained surface is shaved or sanded, the more absorbent grain retains the stain while the harder grain returns to it's original state, creating an enhanced graining effect, or popping of the grain. Using darker, natural coloured stains can not only make a relative new piece of timber look far older, but can also enhance the 3D effect that is present to a degree in most timbers.