Hi folks,
Roman here with his 2 cents on wood steering wheels.
Not to sound arrogant, but my line of work does make me a wood expert,
so I felt like lending my expertise.(since I'm not qualified to talk
about carbs, or gasoline or transmissions.....)
First off, there are many companies that make a wooden wheel, Grant
being one of them.
Grant also, still has a kit for the wheels.
I've seen it posted to the list, I'm sure the archives have the info.
The problem with the wheel is the finish, and how it reacts with the PH
of the perspiration of the driver.
Has almost nothing to do with ambient air temp.
In Montana at wintertime a wheel can be just as sticky as in Arizona in
the summer time.
Most wheels are finished in Polyester resin not Lacquer.
the polyester is cheap and Quick, however, looks like plastic and with
most people ends up being sticky.
One of the problems is that it absorbs nothing! It doesn't breath.
In my Guitar shop, I've made an incredible amount of money providing
this one service; Stripping the finish off the neck and either
Lacquering it or doing a linseed oil finish or tung oil finish.
The customer complaint is always the same. "my neck feels sticky"
Asthetics-wise, most wooden wheels look like crap in my opinion because
of the polyester. Basically it is encased in plastic. What a horrible
thing to do to a nice peice of wood. Talk about adding insult to
injury.
First you cut the tree down, then finish it with plastic.
Might as well just get a plastic woodgrain wheel. hell, the 240z had
this, didn't look bad.
As you can see I'm not a fan of polyester finishes.
I don't know what Nardi uses on their wood wheels, but they are pretty
good...at a price.
Moral of the story? If the finish looks really thick and shiny, most
likely it's polyester, and most likely it will be sticky.
Like I said earlier, I've made a hell of a lot of money stripping the
finish off guitar necks.
It's just like a steering wheel, a peice of wood with a finish on it
that is in constant contact with human hands that perspire.
absolute best thing with a wooden wheel, would be to strip the finish
off and oil it. It would be sticky for about a month until you broke it
in, but after that would feel great with a wonderful grip.
OK, I'm off the soap box now.
hope I entertained at least one person.
Roman Rist
Great guitar builder, lousy website designer
=====
ristguitars@yahoo.com
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=379995
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