I've been dreaming of an exquisite walnut/maple trumpet case, because I need a trumpet case, and because I like the combination of walnut and maple.
I squirrled away a little cash I earned from a bit of moonlighting, and went forth to ye olde butchered and baked tree merchant to purchase as much walnut as I could afford.
Their walnut stock was abysmal. Almost every last board was thin, cupped, severely twisted, and composed predominantly of sapwood.
I came home with the one walnut board that was pretty close to straight and flat. It's a mix of heart and sap, but it has some interesting figure if I don't plane it off when I work it up.
I also came home with 5 bf of mahogany. Honduran, Philipine, Upper Slobobian, Dinzl Ptekian, I have no clue. It's about a raw sienna color, and the color is fairly even, though there is some striping. The butchered treeseller's upstream supplier can supply either "African mahogany" or "Genuine Mahogany." I don't know which this is, and neither did the little old lady behind the counter. It was $4.98/bf compared to $4.70/bf for walnut (the same prices they had a year ago, incidentally) if that makes it likely to be one or the other. I have a vague idea that it's "supposed" to be "genuine" mahogany.
I also spent up the last dregs of my cash on a couple bf of soft maple.
So now I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with this. It just isn't saying "trumpet case" to me anymore. Actually, now that I've got a five-leg stand coming, my horn will almost never see the inside of the case anyway. If I ever do get some contacts going and get out in the world and play with other people at some point, it might be cool to show off my ridiculously snazzy trumpet case, but this is seeming less and less likely. I've been trying to play the social life game a little, and it's just not my bag. I was born to be a hermit.
I've been thinking of doing another chess box, but I had intended to do walnut/maple for that too. I have a real thing for walnut. Mahogany looking interestingish, but it's not a color I'm really in love with. It seems a sure bet it needs to be mixed with something more interesting. This figured heart/sap walnut is interesting. I'm thinking maybe a predominantly mahogany chess box with this swirly walnut for the contrasting element. I'm not sure if this will be a letdown compared to the walnut/maple vision I have to do eventually or not, really. That one I made for Dad last year sure is awful puuuuuuuuurty.
SWMBO doesn't need any jewelry boxes, and there's not enough wood here to build anything of any real size. I guess I'm stuck in a rut on chess boxes, but I can't quite think of anything better to do with it. It sure seems a waste of all this disgustingly expensive wood to make a trumpet case out of it.
What say ye? Also, what say ye about trying some other kind of shellac on the two-tone walnut? I'm debating whether to try garnet or orange instead of the blonde I used last time. It might darken the light patches a little and make everything look more walnutty, but then it might have unwanted clashes with the (faux?) mahogany too.
While I think about it, I guess I'll stick it in the house. I still don't have any satisfactory way to store lumber flat in my shop. I should probably let it sit a few weeks anyway before I work it.