Torrefied Spruce

[Anthony Kreher Kreher Guitars]

I built a guitar recently with one. Can’t say for certain if I like it or not. The quality of the wood feels amazing. Rings out so long. So stiff. A little harder to work. Dents easily and you can’t steam it out. The overall end sound I wasn’t 100% satisfied with but there are some other factors that it could have been. In the end I am excited to try it again.

[Karl Borum – Borum Acoustics]

I’ve built three dreads with torrefied Sitka tops, two of them with torrefied bracewood. I like it a lot, but it’s very brittle, and it’s a bit hydrophobic so TB and hide glue tend to bead up on it. I did some bench tests for glue and found two things regarding the glue beading up :

1. Lighty dampen the gluing surface a minute or two before applying glue (like raising grain).

2. Briskly brush the glue onto the gluing surface- it helps it “wet” onto/ into the wood surface.

You might do a little glue up on scrap to see what I mean.

Be very careful if you flex the top without braces, I broke a top like that- its that brittle. When carving braces, be sure the domed top is supported- like on a bed of towels or in a radius dish.

I love the tone and voice of torrefied spruce while building, you can hear the difference as you work it. I also believe (I could measure with FFT but I havn’t) it makes a more responsive/ sensitive instrument. There is an interactive Looth session on torrefication coming up on the 31st of May with Dana Bourgeois Acoustic Guitar Builders Club: Wood Torrefication, with Dana Burgeois – The Looth Group

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Login – The Looth Group

Login – The Looth Group

[Karl Borum – Borum Acoustics]

Opps…that thing was the 21st, today, and we missed it