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List of closed grain, non-porous back and side woods

Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 7:40 pm
by Dave Bagwill
I have not been able to locate a list of non-porous back and side woods for guitars. Little hints here and there, but I would really like to know which woods do not need to be pore-filled.
Anyone got a list? Maybe in your head? :-)
Thanks

Here are a few that I have read about that are supposedly closed grained:

African Blackwood (Very tight grain - J. Parchem)
Alaskan Yellow Cedar
Alder
Anigre
Beech
Birch
Black Hearted Sassafras
Bloodwood
Cherry
Cypress
Ebony
Goncalo Alves (Tigerwood)
Granadillo
Hard rock maple
Hickory (Eric at wooddatabase advises against classifying Hickory as closed pore 1/9/17)
Holly
Monterillo Rosewood
Pau Ferro (Morado)
Poplar
Purple Heart
Redheart
Tigerwood (Goncalo Alves)

updated 3/16

I got an email from Eric at the wooddata base site; he provided a link that searches the site for 'small pores'. A helpful list and Eric is a helpful fellow. From Eric:

Technically "non-porous" is somewhat of misnomer. All hardwoods have pores, it's just that in some woods, the pores are so small that they either become clogged with sawdust or the finish is still level and doesn't sink down into the pore cavity.

I don't have a list immediately available, but I do hope to add advanced sorting and filtering capabilities to the site during 2017. Basically, what you'd be looking for are woods with small pores. At the moment, the closest thing that you could get to a comprehnesive list is to do a text search on the site for the term "small pores" - http://www.wood-database.com/?s=%22small+pores%22

Re: List of closed grain, non-porous back and side woods

Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 7:56 pm
by Ron Belanger
maple

Re: List of closed grain, non-porous back and side woods

Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:53 am
by Shawn Hoover
Nice list, Dave. Sorry it comes out so short. Why the question on cherry? Seems like a slam dunk to me.

Re: List of closed grain, non-porous back and side woods

Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 12:08 pm
by MarkAndrew1
Goncalo Alves (Tigerwood)

Re: List of closed grain, non-porous back and side woods

Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 2:47 pm
by Dave Bagwill
Thanks for the input.
Re: Cherry - I actually found a website that says it is open-pored. I believe that is crazy talk though, as noone else backs that up. I am going to remove the ?? from the post!!

Re: List of closed grain, non-porous back and side woods

Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 3:46 pm
by ken cierp
Cherry finishes just like Maple

Purple Heart and Bloodwood are both non-porous -- and both have been on my personal to-do list --- maybe a Benedetto? How about Purple Heart/ Ebony and Holly? Very difficult to work however. Oh yeah Holly is non porous too.

Re: List of closed grain, non-porous back and side woods

Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 4:10 pm
by Dave Bagwill
I've updated the list.