Description

Luthier Grade Sinker Billets

Our Old Growth, Quarter-Sawn, Tight Grain Sinker Redwood appeals to the finest luthiers and players who value unique tone combined with extraordinary colors and grains. Our rare, Old Growth Sinker Redwood is truly beautiful, with its quarter sawn old growth tight grain and unusual variegated shades of blond, burgundy and rich cinnamon brown--a result of more than 100 years in the mineral-rich water of the Mendocino and Fort Bragg rivers.

Sinker Old Growth Quarter Sawn Redwood Soundboard Billets for the Best Sounding Guitars, Ukuleles, Violas, Dulcimers, Harps and more...

We have been successful for over 3 decades, finding and purveying the very best in salvaged, never-used, Old Growth Redwood. Every piece of redwood we carry has been hand-selected. We absolutely guarantee its quality.

Our Minimum Dimensions are 8/4" thick x 8"-8 1/2" wide x 20"-20 1/2"-21" long.
[Metric Measure: 10.16 cm thick x 20.33 cm - 21.59 cm wide x 50.8 cm - 52.07 cm - 53.34 cm long.]
We also have billets for Ukuleles and Dulcimers that are appropriately sized.
Redwood Salvage Sales provides Luthier Grade Sinker Redwood billets. Widths vary from 8" to 16" [20.32 cm to 40.64 cm] for solid body guitars. Turnaround is efficient.
We sell worldwide in both large quantities and single 8/4" billets [10.16 cm]: guitar, dulcimer, ukulele, viola, harp--and all sizes.
We also sell large quarter sawn cants for full re-saw.
Fully Air Dried, Stored Correctly. All our redwood has been air-dried at least 1 year per 1" thickness [2.54 cm]; years of correct stickering, storage and rotation right here on our property. No splitting or cupping later! Our redwood is top quality, in top condition!
We custom-mill and handle ONLY ecologically salvaged Old Growth Redwood.
Our billets are clear, all heart and quarter-sawn, to as nearly perfectly vertical grained as possible.
29 years of luthier sales, sinker old growth redwood salvaged from Big River, Mendocino, California and carefully preserved protected and air dried correctly.
One billet is good for 4 full guitar tops. We also sell larger quarter sawn cants for full re-saw. We have the inventory.

Lowden Guitars

We are proud to supply Lowden Guitars and many other purveyors worldwide with luthier grade Old Growth Redwood, salvaged--"sinker" from the river bottoms.

Our own California redwood is mentioned in the video on this page at (9:10). Listen to George Lowden's great recommendation of its qualities!

Transcribed from Lowden YouTube Video

(9:05) "In this case, I've put the African Blackwood with a Redwood top. Redwood from California, we get this wood from fall-down trees, so the trees may have been lying in the forest's rivers for years and years and years before they're taken out, and turned into guitar tops.

"And that's called 'sinker redwood.'

"Redwood is, maybe of all the woods, all the sound board woods that I've had the joy of working with over the years, redwood is probably my favorite. Of course it looks great. It's got fantastic coloration. Ya know I just love the depth you get, but much more important is this warmth to the tone, along with sustain, which is almost unbeatable as a tonewood in my experience. And if you put it with a Rosewood of some sort on the back and sides, you get, maybe the best of all worlds--a good compromise between clarity on the one hand, and fullness and warmth on the other. And loads of sustain, which of course everybody loves. It's neither too cold, nor is it too 'muddy.' So, it's very hard to beat.

"One of the great things about redwood also is that you can dig in, you can be aggressive, without it overdriving. And you can also be delicate, and it will still respond very well.

"The sustain is hard to describe, you have to pick up the guitar and play it yourself! But you can hear, on the basses it's still warm. If I was making a guitar for myself, probably it would be African Blackwood and Redwood." (11:38)

As Lowden quotes amplify, the tone of "sinker wood" is unique, many say because of the minerals left by the sea water in the "sinker wood" from submerged in Big River for 135-years.

The Opportunity, The Challenge, The Solution

THE SALVAGE STORY: Our redwood is ecologically sound; having been cut by original loggers of the mid-1800s and lain at the bottom of Big River over 135 years. This lost-treasure of old growth sinker redwood was discovered during bridge repair work on Big River in the 1990s. Industrial drills had hauled up red-colored wood shavings as deep as 38 feet below the river bottom.

Arky Ciancutti, and his adventurous business partner, Scott, salvaged the sunken redwood logs using hand-wench and the lift of the tides. By beginning at low tide, they took advantage of rising water to help ease each massive log loose, raising the water-logged giants from the river bottom 35 feet below--a work of ingenuity and determination!

Our redwood is NOT from second-growth harvesting. The appeal of our redwood is that it is first growth, a different animal than 2nd to 5th growth redwood. Why? Because subsequent growth, once the old growth is cut, grows from the original roots, and therefore many, many times faster, resulting in lots of small "sucker" tress, a very pulpy wood (wide growth rings, due to the rapid growth, since the roots are already established).

Our redwood is the dense Old Growth with tight growth rings--the quality treasure that woodcrafters desire--who, in my father's words, "want to build something really beautiful 'guiltlessly.'"

Our rare, Old Growth Sinker Redwood is extraordinarily beautiful, with its tight grain and unusual variegated shades of blond, burgundy and rich cinnamon brown--a result of more than 100 years in the mineral-rich water of Big River, Mendocino, California.

Some treasures may seem lost. But with a sure will and inspiration, lost treasures CAN be found. We offer YOU that rare treasure of early California--from the land of creating dreams--that you may create your own with this special sinker redwood.

Our redwood is so beautiful, we don't just sell wood--we sell AWE!

REDWOOD TONEWOOD: SUPERIOR SUSTAIN WITH STUNNING COLOR!