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Making Matters: constructing a quartet from one maple tree

2025-07-11T09:05:00

Poss lead

Hans Jóhannsson reflects on the experience of making a quartet of instruments using maple sourced from a single tree

Some years ago, my friend and colleague René Zaal received a visit from a wood dealer with a van full of high-quality maple from eastern Europe. The wood was of low density and had quite a decent figure and unusually tight grain. René bought a good many large flitches and later on I was able to buy four large pieces from him. But it wasn’t until years later that I finally decided that this maple was my opportunity to make a whole set of instruments using wood from the same tree…

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