Official Luthiers Forum!

hi!
do you know if on the archive or in the web, there'a a tutorial about cut trees, dry 'em and transform them in guitar back and sides?

thank you

_________________
everything you know is wrong

I do this, but I dont have a tutorial.

 Try www.forestryforum.com and then click on drying and processing for tips on drying different types of wood.

_________________
Reguards,

Ken H

hi bolix, it's a LONG term job.

expect at least 5 years from chainsaw to getting the strings on

welcome to the OLF by the way!!

_________________
My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

I should have gone into more detail in my first post.

 

Tying to be brief:

The log has to be end sealed with something to prevent end checking in the wood. I use anchorseal to do this. It is a waxy substance that can be purchased in 5 gallon pails.

WHen the log is cut, it is best that the wood is quarter sawn if it is going to be used for musical instruments, which is a lengthy and labor intensive way to mill lumber from logs.

When the boards come off of the mill, the lumber will have to be stacked and "stickered", which means that it is in no more than 4' wide layers, with small boards or "sticks" running across the layer and no more than 18" apart. I will tell you that there is a real art to stickering lumber so that the dried lumber doesnt come out warped.

The whole stack of lumber then has to be kept in ideal conditions so that it is not too hot or cold, and the relative humidity is not too wet ot dry. Too dry will cause the lumber to split along the grain and too wet will cause the lumber to mildew and stain. Air circulation has to be optimal also.

The rule of thumb for air drying wood is one year of drying in optimal conditions per inch of wood.

The lumber then has to be resawn into useable sizes and also has to be stacked and stickered at this new thinner thickness for a while to stabilize at perfect humidity conditions to avoid further checking in the wood.

It will then need to be planed and sanded to thickness. At this point, you will have useable wood that is equal to what you purchase from most instrument wood vendors.

You can plan on loosing at least 40% of the wood that you have dried to things such as knots, worm holes, warping, and imperfections in the wood.

There is a LOt more to it than this, but this is a brief run down on how to do it.

_________________
Reguards,

Ken H

Here is a hickory tree I cut down a couple of years ago from my front yard. It was over 40 inches in diameter at the butt of the log.

I milled it into 1x8" boards using a Peterson Swing Mill (one of 3 sawmills I own)

the lumber was stacked and stickered and has been sitting there for 2 years.

Soon, you will begin seeing a few guitars made using this wood. There is a long way to go before I can use this wood for instruments though.

_________________
Reguards,

Ken H

Im about to take down 5 old burly apple trees, basically I have limited space to cure and store wood now so I will be taking the freshly cut logs, sealing the ends and stacking them on pallets off the ground - covering them with a tarp, the tarp will cover a frame without touching any of the wood, it will them be left for at least 5 years, milled then stickered and cured for varying lengths of time depending on the application,
While this is not my ideal method its the only method at my disposal right now, I will probbly be building a curing shed - next spring when Ive saved up for something like that
i.e.(a project of that magnitude)
Kiln drying can vastly improve your drying time and get workable timber into your hands much faster, but leaves the wood less stable in my opinion, and makes the timber more susceptible to humidity changes again IMHO
Cheers
Charliewood

Apple wood is some kind of beautiful wood charlie! You will be very pleased when you get around to milling it.

_________________
Reguards,

Ken H

With the storms we've had here in Sydney lately, I've been thinking about joining the NSW State Emergency Service. These are volunteers who go out to assist their communities during floods, storms and other emergencies.

So many trees have come down 'round here in the storms and it's these dudes who go out, cut them up and remove them. I'd like to remove some of them to my place .

I told my wife I wanted to join, she thought me very community spirited, until she noticed me salivating over a big old bunya pine the SES were chopping up on the tv news. I told her Maton guitars use Bunya for guitar tops. She doesn't think I'm so community spirited now