Handcrafted Blades by Ross Leidy

TheRobot99 wrote: mmerkel wrote: I LIKE it....but why did you decide to hid the beautiful layer structure with edge banding? It's because there's balsa in it. Also, it's visible on the bottom. On that note, can we have a shot of the bottom of the blade too?  Then we can easily see the plies.

I'll have to check when I get home tonight to see if I've got a close-up.

I LIKE it....but why did you decide to hide the beautiful layer structure with edge banding?

There are some blades using Mahogany for the outer plies :

Nexy Calix
Donic Burn Off-
Donic Burn Off
Donic Burn Carbotox
Donic Burn Aratox RS
Andro Temper Tech Off-

to name a few.

an aside: are there any commercial (non-custom) blades using mahogany as outer ply? If not, why not?

Ross Leidy wrote: mhnh007 wrote: Gorgeous blade.  The top ply looks hard.  Is it as hard as the bloodwood? The birch has a similar hardness to white ash, which is nowhere near as hard as bloodwood.  Ever since building a couple of Violin-like compositions for the "Buer boys", I've wanted to build a similar blade for myself.  Unfortunately, I exhausted my existing stock of white ash last week, so I improvised with the masur birch.  I like a slightly stiffer blade, so I increased the thickness of the kiri core to 4mm, and used a softer mahogany medial with the intent to offset the speed increase of the stiffer blade.  I see how that plan works out later this week.

Sounds like a very good designed.  Thick Core and gratually going from hard to soft wood, similar to the Donic Burn series, but with much better looking, and I like the use of Mahogany 2nd ply, this I think will increase the sweet spot.  Let us know how it plays out...

mhnh007 wrote: Gorgeous blade.  The top ply looks hard.  Is it as hard as the bloodwood?

The birch has a similar hardness to white ash, which is nowhere near as hard as bloodwood.  Ever since building a couple of Violin-like compositions for the "Buer boys", I've wanted to build a similar blade for myself.  Unfortunately, I exhausted my existing stock of white ash last week, so I improvised with the masur birch.  I like a slightly stiffer blade, so I increased the thickness of the kiri core to 4mm, and used a softer mahogany medial with the intent to offset the speed increase of the stiffer blade.  I see how that plan works out later this week. 

I think I just had an eyegasm!

fatt wrote: how much does it weight?

It's around 89g.

aeoliah wrote: I am very happy to see the pictures. It is very nice indeed ! Since the only difference with Violin is only the outer ply, I believe it would be just the "Faster Violin". Ross, will the blade come with your logo on the handle ?

witwew!!!

iliketurtles wrote: That is one nice-looking jpen! What about the flex?

Thanks a lot Ross. Nice work.

Can we also have side views of the plies, please. This looks really nice.

Speaking from the perspective of top plys Koto is just as hard as Walnut, I'd bet Walnut is more elastic as it seems to make more bounce when used with a softer 2nd ply than Koto does. Choosing between those would only depend if you like bounce in the blade or not and if you are using a soft 2nd ply. Imho Walnut sounds better and Maple is different again and makes an awesome sound too

Ross Leidy wrote: Until I have the luxury of investing in a cnc machine or laser engraver, I won't be able to do any inscriptions.  It would be a nice option, but I don't think it will happen any time soon.