My first sao

Building/Repair
#1

I am having difficulties on selecting the wood for my sao…

It will be a sanshin sao,not shamisen (Aawwwwwww D-:slight_smile:

The biggest feature is that… It will be wood from my grandfather’s cottage,who passed away on 2011. I just need my grandma’s authorization :-P,but since I will use Aroeira,or any other hardwood found in the cottage,as a “souvenir” that I will keep with me for the whole life,she will authorize me,I’m sure!

I had this crazy idea when I remembered about planting your own tree to make shamisen (-:

I need some info,like,

-How much time is needed for wood to dry ( it will be a log,extracted directly from the cottage)

-Is it best to use lumber ou a log?

More questions coming soon (-:

#2

Were you going to just pull a log off the building to use? If the wood has been part of the cottage for a long time then drying probably wont be much of an issue, but it would still be a good idea to leave the wood in a dry place to stabilize for a few months. Especially if you use a wood like Aroeira. I keep the pieces of wood I make my shamisen out of in my closet until I’m ready to use them.

Using a log would be fine, but whatever you use inspect it very carefully for termites, rot, cracks, and so on. I just spent the last month carving out a part for my shamisen just to find that the wood had termite damage :frowning:

Good luck making your Sao. I’m sure your grandfather would be very proud! :smiley:

#3

awesome idea wow this should make a very valuable cool instrument :slight_smile: guess a rather small wood piece in good condition for a sao should be possible to be found somewhere there . . .

#4

anyone into skiing btw? I just thought Cody on his avatar looks a little bit like the recent 2 time gold medal winner ted ligaty (damn americans) since I don’t know about the prominence of skiing on TV in other countries except that it is often less prominent I just thought I mention one good coverage and live stream of the world championships in austria this second of it week is at Livestreams – ORF-TVthek whenever there is a race going on . . . I see today the team competition is on starting at 4pm UTC time and coverage (german commentaries of course but I might actually turn the audio off for the first time today can hardly stand in general the common sports commentator babble in whatever language or at whatever station) starting at 3.30 pm UTC time . . .

damn it is snowing in graz and the taxis unlike a decent number of other cars I have driven in winter back home are slippy so I took a day off and tomorrow more snow expected but I have a longer ride booking so I will drive and hope to be alright likely taking the effort of putting on snow chains for the first time ever and of course since I will have Kyoko’s lucky charm for traffic safety with me this should be no problem whatsoever :slight_smile:

#5

I will get the wood from a little forest beside the house.

I may need some guide to make it. But that’s no problem,since we have lots of sanshin shokunin in Brazil,however,every help is good,so if anyone has ideas or tips,please tell me :smiley:

#6

I think this is a wonderful project Shinji and hope you the very best in succeeding! I’m not much of a wood person, but its good that you plan on getting it from the forest I think. I don’t know much about log cabins, but here up north the whole process of building them is based on splitting the logs so it might not work as material.

#7

I too wish you the best Shinji!

#8

Thanks Guys!

#9

Kyle! Do you have any advices?

#10

Hi Shinji – I’ve made a couple of instruments using wood that I cut myself. A common guide is to allow freshly-cut wood to dry one year for each 2.5 cm of thickness. To shorten the drying time, rough-cut the parts from the green wood, leaving ~1 cm extra to allow for shrinking or warping. Here is a link with more information:

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Estimates_of_Air_Drying_Times.html

Take care: the cut ends of green wood must be sealed immediately. Otherwise, the more-porous ends will dry (and shrink) faster than the sides, resulting in large cracks. The best advice is to melt paraffin wax over the ends, or apply a product such as Anchorseal. People have mixed opinions about the effectiveness of painting cut ends with common house paint. A web search on “seal green wood” will give you plenty to read.

#11

I just thought and i think Aroeira is kinda too big for me to cut.

I dont want to cut a tree that is bigger than 10-15 meters.

However i think i can make more than 1 sao :wink:
Since its a forest,if i cut a big tree,it can damage others…

My Oji-chan’s Hôji (as i said,he passed away 2 years ago) will be on March 9th And its the best chance to get the log!

If i am able to get the log… You guys think i should leave it on the cottage (where its very hot the whole year [25º - 33º Celsius]) or take it with me back to city?

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