Show your wood

No, a stain is just coloring, usually basically a watercolor or the same thing in an alcohol base. Oils seal and protect -- like tung oil, danish oil, linseed oil, teak oil, etc., and they will all have this kind of effect on wood, to a greater or lesser extent. Nothing terribly exotic, and used as finishes by themselves or with standard oil-based varnishes. Pretty much any time you look at fine furniture or cabinetry, that's what you're looking at. There are water-based finishes, most of which give a hazy blue cast to the wood. Sorry if I threw you off here, but this appearance change is perfectly normal and doesn't constitute re-coloring the wood. I'd venture to say that it has happened with almost every "natural" wood drum you've ever seen. If you saw a picture of any of the shells in this thread before they had a finish on them you'd see something radically different from the photos here. Raw wood isn't too exciting to look at -- just like in a lumber store. It's the finishing that makes it sing.

But if it helps, here's a basic steambent maple snare, with exactly the same finishing technique and materials. My guess is you'd accept this as a "natural" look.

EDIT: Oh, and I'm not sure what sort of mistakes could be hidden with stain, but I don't sell drums with hidden mistakes. Just want to be clear about that. :) Even when I use stains, they're not there to hide anything.

And sorry -- didn't meant to hijack your thread with a discussion about finishing techniques -- only trying to respond to your doubts.

That snare on the bottom definitely looks like natural wood. I assume that before oiling, it was slightly lighter? I have put linseed oil on wood. It's not particularly dark and even it will darken up wood a bit.

I'm not much of a woodworker. I guess this thread is to show finishes that are as natural as possible, with no staining and minimal color alteration. It sounds like some darkening is unavoidable when applying oil. Even clear varnish is going to change the way light enters and reflects from the wood so I guess that unless someone uses an absolutely raw wood shell, some change is inevitable. Seems OK to me and thanks for sharing your knowledge about wood finishing.
 
few steambent shells i have been working on this week,
 

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I dig the badges as well. Do you make those too or have them made?
 
These are beautiful. To me this makes more sense than stave drums. I love the fact that the grain runs around the drum, instead of top to bottom. Very nice work.
 
I actually dig the badges. They give the drums a retro feel.

Lol, retro like 70's shag carpet. I dig the drums totally though. Steam bent, to me is way superior to anything, but I have never tried a stave drum. There are lots out there these days, I will have to check some out. As for steam bent solid, I own three solid shell snares and they all kick butt.
 
Loving those drums and wood hoops Guru. What is the dark wood?
Not loving your Guru name badges though, sorry, but it kind of reminds me of what the car dealers used to make to plaster their dealer name on everyones car. You are making some really classy looking drums, the name badge is taking away from that.

Thanks for the compliments, i never seen anything here in uk like you describe on cars but wish i had known when designing them lol,

the darkest wood is cocobolo very hard and oily wood, the other more stripy wood with matching hoops is ovankol another pretty hard wood but much lighter in in weight to the cocobolo

the others from left top are cherry, fiddleback sycamore, ash, cocobolo, ovankol, sapele, birdseye maple
 
These are beautiful. To me this makes more sense than stave drums. I love the fact that the grain runs around the drum, instead of top to bottom. Very nice work.

thanks for the kind words, the steambent shels make for a much diffrent drum compaired to a stave drum built in the same wood, i make lots of both, steambent shells hold tention/stress created from bending wich i find raises the pitch of the drum wich allso transfers resonance alittle more , both great construction methods and have there equal places depending on what your after from a drum
 
Thanks for the wood run down Guru, and the steam bent/stave opinion. I am curious on the stave construction, thinking of giving one a try.

The Fiddle Sycamore caught my eye. I recently rescued an unloved 6 1/2" maple snare shell. I found some nice wood veneer but seem to be getting conflicting reports of what the wood is. The place I bought it from said Flame Birch, I had my doubts, another wood supplier said it was african Abigne. (EDIT). I saw his site with a picture of abigne and yes it looked just like this but it had more dark tint like a cedar. Now I see your wood shells and the fiddle sycamore looks alot like this, what do you think?

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With a light ipswich pine stain and clear, before polishing

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And done

5nsax.jpg


EDIT: Sorry for the stain, just trying to get an answer from guru who seems to know way more about wood than me, and hey there is non stain here too lol.
 
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Loving those drums and wood hoops Guru. What is the dark wood?
Not loving your Guru name badges though, sorry, but it kind of reminds me of what the car dealers used to make to plaster their dealer name on everyones car. You are making some really classy looking drums, the name badge is taking away from that.
Take no notice of him Dean, uniongoon obviously has no taste, I mean, c'mon, he doesn't even like shagpile carpet, lol!

I like the Guru badge. Classy, uncluttered & timeless. Understated, yes, but isn't that always where you find quality lying beneath?

Anyhow, everything has it's place. Give the lady in your life the choice of 6" deep shagpile or modern laminate for her bedroom floor. If she choses laminate, she's already given up on your adventurous side (wink!).
 
Can I remind people of this please? :p

There is a few stain's coming through!

Stain bad. Oh very bad. (well for this thread anyway)

Yes, by all means, remind them. I will too.

NO STAINED DRUMS ON THIS THREAD PLEASE.

Just unstained wood. Oils, varnish and other essential finishes are fine as long as they do not substantially recolor or change the wood.

The goal of this thread is to show wood in as NATURAL CONDITION as possible, allowing for the fact that oiling and varnishing are necessary to preserve the wood (well, most of the time - my drums have no varnish or oil, just clear sealant). The less the wood is changed from its natural appearance, the better.

No artificial colors, flavors or enhancers allowed!
 
Dude, that drum is so hot I want to mate with it ... OK, not like that at all, but it is outrageously gorgeous.

Did you put it together or what? And what are fine-tuning screws? Never heard of them. I just know 4 mm tuning bolts but I don't know the standard pitch on them.
 
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