Thursday, February 16, 2012

Murray Kidman

I was fortunate to have my friends Carl and Glen in Australia introduce me to Murray Kidman. He is a rare breed of Aussie who goes out into the bush with a chainsaw and a boatload of skill and comes back with some beautiful woods. He specializes in tone woods for guitar makers. Watching him work is pure pleasure. I've never seen a chainsaw handled so expertly.
 Here is a snake having a particularly tough day. He was in the log and managed to get cut into thirds. We never did find the head!


Check out this video of Murray at work.


I watched him rip a board less than 3/8" off the side of the log like it was cut on a resaw bandsaw.
Here is the final product at the Maton Guitar showroom in Victoria.


























For another video of brilliant Aussie bushmen, check out this one that Robin Wood posted.
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4 comments:

  1. mckenzieFebruary 16, 2012 at 10:37 AM

    Murray makes it look pretty easy, i feel like i'd have lost all my personal limbs milling up that tree. Learning how to use a chainsaw is on my list.

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  2. Tico VogtFebruary 16, 2012 at 1:31 PM

    Any particular tooth profile/filing angles that he goes by?
    Never uses a guide? Wow.

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  3. Peter GalbertFebruary 19, 2012 at 7:41 PM

    Tico,
    It's a skip tooth, full chisel blade with the teeth filed nearlynstraight across!

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  4. UnknownFebruary 22, 2012 at 3:14 PM

    Timber framing was my first passion so I loved the video and the link to the old school timber framers.

    Next time I am in Aussieland I might have to check out that guitar shop.

    Nice to see you posting away Pete!

    ReplyDelete