Chestnut

[Daniel]

How do  you all feel about Chestnut as a tone wood?

I was visiting Etienne Vanhove’s shop to have him repair the pickguard on my mandolin and noticed a large chunk of it in the shop.  It’ll need to be trimmed and stacked, but it’s beautiful stuff.  Yellow like Maple, but without the green overtones.  Chestnut has blue overtones.

I’m thinking fretboards maybe?  But like Maple and Walnut, a relative, it could be used for the body.

Daniel

[Chrisakadigdog]

I’ve Only seen it used as a binding or marquetry inlay on a few guitars from Japan, Yamaki,Yairi, Tokai,  Never as a back and sides tone wood use.      I could imagine it looking sharp as a combo three piece back for Mando or guitar.

[tadol]

Most chestnut seems to suffer from worms – hence “wormy chestnut” – may be primarily a US problem?  But it does (usually?) have a very pronounced grain – it’d be interesting to see one!

[Daniel]

Etienne had a big piece of it.  Slab cut centre of a tree.  There were knots here and there, but nothing problematic.
I’ll see if I can get a photos.

Daniel  (candied chestnuts, yum)

[Matt Hayden]

It’s good material, not particularly heavy, and nicely grained.

[Matt Hayden]

And it makes great furniture.

[haasome]

I was a builder for a good part of my life and think Chestnut is the perfect wood. Its strong, stiff, rot-resistant, durable, works easily and looks beautiful. Some 200+ year old homes have perfectly good underpinnings, even in our damp New England environment. However, Chestnut Trees suffer from the blight and no longer grow — at least American Chestnut doesn’t. I have many dozens of American Chestnut trees that continue to stump-shoot on my property. But then they all die when they reach ~20 feet tall, before they can produce seeds/nuts. Foresters and Biologists have been working long and hard to develop a blight-resistant strain with some promise. I had one American Chestnut tree grow tall enough to produce 2 nuts last year, but the tree died this year.

I just read this article about genetic experiments that show promise, but people are concerned about the impact of genetically altering trees. I hope the link works for those interested — http://northamptondaily.ma.newsmemory.com/?publink=09625c7ca

---

– Paul –

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by haasome.

[Author]

Posts