A DAY TO REMEMBER

​What a day,  It began with a drive up to lovely Skagit Valley to Pacific Rim Tonewood

​My goal was to pick up some samples of Spruce tops for my friend Mike Rock of Mele Ukuleles on Maui, and to negotiate a deal for him to buy from Pacific Rim.  I had nice visits with Eric Warner the General Manager, and Steve McMinn the congenial and visionary owner.

This is Steve,  not he most flattering picture of him,  He is really better looking than this.

I happened to get there the day that they were dealing with the great pile of wood scraps that is created annually.  Here they are dumping scrap wood to be ground up and used as soil amendment for a Garden Mulch company.

​This is the grinder

and here it is grinding, loading the truck via conveyer.  

Here are small orders being shipped to Kala Ukuleles and a couple of small guitar companies, The tube contains bindings that they also make here

Here is a huge pallet of tops ready to ship to Martin Guitars.

The sorting room where the final quality check is made.

​there are immense stacks of magnificent wood everywhere you look

And it all begins here with these huge Sitka Spruce logs, mostly sourced from British Columbia.

And now being cut to size and ready to split into billets.

It was a great morning with my friends at the mill.  I came home with some samples for Mele Ukulele and a great stash of wonderful Spruce brace wood for my own workshop.
Thanks Steve and Eric for your friendly greetings and generosity- we will see if we can get you a new customer.

 And then,  I was no sooner home in my workshop sorting the wood I had brought home, than I had a surprise visitor,  Ricardo, my new Mexican friend, just back from his home town of Paracho, the guitar capital of Mexico.  He brought me an amazing variety of Mexican woods, including some marvelous Cocobolo.  Following are photos of the wood.

---

​Cocobolo

​Bocote

​Magnolia

​Cedro Hispanico

    Rosa Mexicana

Palo Escrito

​Rosa Morada

Parota

​HOW WAS THAT FOR A FUN DAY