Seed to Song
Celebrating the journey Laurie’s tonewoods take before they find their resting place in a Laurie Williams guitar.
Laurie Williams moved from New Zealand’s largest city to a small rural property near the very top of New Zealand. In a temperate climate, the sound of the Oruaiti river blends with native birds and forest trees that surround his workshop, providing Laurie with plenty of natural inspiration as he builds and crafts his guitars.
Seed to Song
Part of the ‘Seed to Song’ journey as beautifully captured by Gareth Moon
Age of tonewoods
The tonewoods all start off their life as a seed and then a sapling in the forest. Most of these timbers grow for between 100 years or more (though the ‘Old Man’ kauri sets Laurie stocks comes from a tree around 2000 years old), before reaching the necessary maturity and size required for producing the resonance of a Laurie Williams guitar.
The precise age of many of Laurie’s tonewoods can be difficult to determine but is generally indicated by the circumference of the tree and its growth rings. Scientists know with reasonable certainty that the oldest living kauri tree in New Zealand is about 2,000 years old.
Diversity of growing conditions
There are no two trees alike and part of the fascination about the various Laurie Williams’ tonewoods is they all have different backgrounds. Some have grown under the forest canopy, others in coastal areas. Some prefer lush, fertile soils while others like to keep their feet wet in the swamps. Some thrive in warmer conditions and there are those that prefer the mountainous areas.
Within the same species, it is the unique growing conditions and environment which can produce a range of densities and rate of growth that, in turn, has a significant effect on a particular tree’s tonal characteristics, and therefore, its suitability for musical instrument tonewood.
Sinker, Swamp, and Riverwoods
You may hear the term Sinker, Swamp, and Riverwood, in relation to tonewoods. These are terms used to describe the history of the wood after the tree has been deliberately felled or fallen naturally.
A Sinker is a log that has been cut by the woodsman and has subsequently been lost to the river; either because it has sunk, or otherwise become lodged under the surface as it was being transported to the sawmill. The lack of oxygen and the pressure of being underwater both preserves and alters the tonewoods, adjusting the sonic and visual properties of the wood. Over time, logs may become buried in the river silt while others are more exposed to the flow of water, resulting in a wide variety of colours and patterns that are often stunningly beautiful and unique to each individual log.
This phenomenon is not limited to man-made activity. Sometimes a ‘river-fallen’ tree occurs naturally, perhaps through the natural erosion and movement of the riverbank, or by storm. These trees can be identified from other man-made sinkers by the fact that they still have the tree’s root ball intact, i.e. the whole tree has been claimed by the river through some natural event and has remained preserved for an indeterminate duration.
It is very difficult to accurately age these woods but from what we know of the time it takes to colour felled sinkers from a 150 years ago, it is possible to guess at a minimum for how long they have been buried in the river.
Riverwood is the term used to describe all sinkers recovered from the Northland rivers of the north of New Zealand, while Swamp is the term often used to describe the ancient kauri recovered from the peat swamps in which they are found. Swamp kauri has been buried for many thousands of years.
Milling and initial processing
When Laurie is contacted regarding the availability of a new tree or sinker, he will travel to the site, or to the NZ Riverwood mill to determine suitability and/or details of milling. Depending on the log, this may include determining the best orientation and milling strategy to yield the best tonewood from what is available and minimise runout.
His partnership with NZ Riverwood began many years ago with Laurie consulting and being involved in the company’s continued progress and development. It continues to be a mutually beneficial relationship born of a shared passion for the beauty of the native resources available in the North, and a desire to use that resource creatively and responsibly.
Occasionally, an exceptional sample is discovered. In this case, Laurie will procure sections or even whole logs which can be brought back to his own facilities, where he can mill and resaw these pieces on site. However, whatever the source or initial methods of processing the woods, Laurie’s continued partnership with the team at NZ Riverwood ensures he is there, right at the beginning and heart of the process, to select and mill to his specific and exacting requirements.
Drying
Depending on the end purpose of the wood, and specific requirements for each species, each billet is resawn into appropriate dimensions, sealed, and placed in a naturally aspirated initial drying room, where it begins to air dry slowly. After a time, when the moisture content has reduced sufficiently, the billets are then evaluated, resawn into sets, or smaller billets, and moved into final drying rooms.
Finally, sets are moved into a controlled environment in preparation for future projects. The entire process can vary in time considerably, based upon the species, ease or difficulty of drying, as well as the final dimensions required.
The result is tonewood that is naturally de-stressed and in the best condition possible for tone production. With Laurie’s hands on approach and expertise, it also ensures the maximum conversion rates into useable timber, often coming down to the nearest millimetre.
This Seed to Song is still growing. We’ll be completing it in the coming months.