Official Luthiers Forum!

I just recieved a PM from Adam, who was interested in continuing the discussion he inadvertantly raised by asking how he should store his wood.
now,,,, I know that alot of people here have had lengthy discussion on r.h. and stickering and storing wood.
But we touched upon something that is dear to my heart the wood to plank to set lifespan of a chunk of wood, what is OK for the wood, whats not, and the possibilities of what can happen during this span.
I am new to guitar building, but Im no newbie to wood, Ive worked with it, carved, built with, and collected and stored it for going on 2 decades now - and I forget that some people who are new to building guitars are also new to woodworking, using tools hand and power, and such
{thats not to say that you are Adam, I dont know}
There is an interesting dichotomy in building, two seperate cams almost, where one group of builders buys thier sets
{or wood to cut sets from} and simply stores them in a humidity controlled environment {and perhaps the simplicity of that type of relationship with wood, one that leaves more time for building guitars}
another camp loves the logs to lumber to sets relationship with wood, storing curing stickering seasoning etc.
Im of the second camp I admit it - In fact I just salvaged the largest apple burl Ive ever seen a few days ago from some winter storm blow downs, Its the first such super score Ive made in a while, and now its wax sealed, and stored, and Im dreaming of the future uses for it already.
I stated how some people feel that during the life of wood that its actually beneficial to have the wood fluctuate somewhat widely in humidty and throughout summer and winter conditioning, This is seasoning I feel.
We all know alot of wood does not undergo these changes and arrives from a semi tropical or tropical environment, only to be humidity controlled till its built with.
Some people feel that stabilization of r.h. immediately is a more appropriate way of keeping wood until building.
I hope that some people who work with wood on a import and sales scale, as well as some of the old dogs, will chime in here,
hopefully this will renew the interest in the subject and satisfy the curiosity of all who are interested,
How bout that Adam?
Cheers
Charliewood

Whew hew Charlie, nice way to bring this great topic, great post bro!

I'm in the camp who believes that native woods should be air dried outside after the trees fell, for a period of at least a year, if not 2 depending on the width of the logs, and then cut in billets, waxed and sawn and resawn to be then seasoned and then stickered in our shops in a controlled environment. I'm not much of a lumberjack yet, i have traded some scrounged appliances for an old chainsaw recently and can only dream of bringing down my first tree with it, i used to do that with an axe when i was living up north but it was for firewood back then.

As for exotic woods, there's a lot to be known and i'm so glad we have experienced sponsors who have gathered all the input for each species, it is well worth encouraging them and buying sets that only need to be stickered before we caress them and make instruments with them, hard to wait 3-6 months when you have an highly figured piece of wood on the shelf though!

Thanks for helping start this thread. Some wood I have bought specifically some sinker redwood is not waxed on the ends. Can someone please explain to me how I would go about sealing the ends?  Thanks.

I was hoping to revive this topic, but it appears as though its not happening Adam -
either people are juts not interested in this topic or {or its just too elementary a subject for them}
or mabye they just plain dont like me, cause it seems like when I post, the thread ends
This is something I have been noticing more and more lately..
If I have offended anyone I apologize formally. . .
perhaps sometimes my wording is too blunt or something - I really dont mean any insult to anyone, or be a jerk - honest.
Cheers
Charliewood

Charliewood:

I can't imagine you've offended anyone, certainly not me in any way - and I don't think you're a "thread killer".    Not at all.

Sadly, I just don't have any insight to offer in this discussion. The wood I use is bought from vendors who have already resawn, cut, sanded and seasoned it...a few weeks in my shop climate and it's ready to go.

Maybe others will add to the discussion soon.

_________________
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

This question is in the realm of opinion, not fact. I prefer to let my tops season in the attic of my garage. The temperature and humidity fluctuate wildly, which is what I am after. I want those bad boys to shrink and swell like crazy until I bring them into my controlled humidity assembly room. There is nothinig factual that this makes a better, more stable soundboard. It is just something that makes sense to me and appeals to my sense of the romantic.

_________________
Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large

Charliewood: ditto on what Bill Greene said

I buy all seasoned sets so my situation is the same, I store all my wood sets in my temp/Rh controled shop. I sticker and add weight to the top of the stack.

Mike

awesome we are finally getting some posts here! I also only have already
sewn sets otherwise it is a thicker board left from the billet. I am not
planning on building all of the sets that I have right away, but I am thinking
that putting them into my controlled shop would be the best, as well as to
sticker label the wood. Thanks to everyone who has posted. I would just
hate for my lack of knowledge being the reason to ruining the wood that I
have!

What sides of the wood needs to be sealed, and what do you use to seal the
wood. I have read in some older posts that pvc pipe glue works, but that I
am unsure of.

Is your redwood in billet form? If so, you can seal the end with old wood glue. I use Titebond that is past its best for guitar construction.

I have always used wood that was in larger dimensions that what are used for guitar B&S and tops {thickness wise. I have always sealed the ends of my wood and let the wood season in natural rh and temp conditions through the bark when in a log, root, or branch form.
As for a dimensionally cut pieces of lumber also I have sealed the ends and exposed them to the same conditions
{with parafin or beeswax usually I tend to prefer beeswax as it is less brittle and less likely to crack off}
but sometimes Ive used paint, varnish, and sometimes glue to seal ends in a pinch,
{but only if the wood was to be further reduced in size I doubt someone would want to do this with a back and side set} The idea is to get moisture to escape more slowly through the sides of the wood instead of the end grain
using paint was not always effective but usually {90%or more}
I found that harder to season wood such as Madrone{arbutus} the entire piece was best sealed{especially arbutus burl which are almost impossible to season without at least some checking}, with mabye a few gaps to release moisture.
In effect the more slowly the wood is seasoned the better the chances of reducing checking in the piece.
There are compound that some people use to stabilize green wood {or hard to season without checking wood}
but I dont know much about this stuff, Ive only heard about it.
I havent done alot of resawing I usually farmed out my logs to someone with an alaskan mill to reduce it to lumber for me in the past, now that I have a bandsaw I can do some resawing at least, although Im sure it will be a learning curve.
Cheers
Charliewood

Charlie, you got a PM Bro!

Great tips on sealing the ends here, thanks Anthony and Charlie.

The only types of hardwood i could dream of resawing from a local standpoint are maple, walnut and maybe cherry( if i get lucky! ) and the tips on what we can encounter with green wood and checking are much appreciated . i agree with the fact that the longer we wait before utilising our woods, the better are our chances to avoid checking and this one thing i have in mind while building no 3, the longer i wait to build it gives a chance to my mini stash to get the seasoning it will need for subsequent builds and it also develops my patience.

I plan on building some sort of closed cabinet with a lightbulb inside that would help season my wood slowly while it's being stickered in there, seen that option on many lutherie websites where they claim that their shops are well controled in terms of humidity.

SergeSerge Poirier39110.816400463

Hey Charlie, first off, your not a thread killer. Sometimes people just don't have a lot to say on a particular matter.

This could certainly be one of those situations. You already sound more seasoned and experienced with raw log to lumber to processed parts than the majority of the folks here save for some of our sponsors, so this could be why there is not many postings here, I mean as of my post you've had 216 viewings on you post, so there is certainly interest, just maybe most viewers really don't have much to input.

Soooo on that note, I don't really have much to input.

I have a small shop, no ability to resaw and limited room to store stuff, so I generally buy what I need from a sponsor or guitar specific supplier, get it into the shop, let is acclimate to the shop at least 1 month before I do anything with it.

You know considerably more than I do or may ever know about processing logs to usable pieces. You should be glad that you do because you really will be able to select your wood better than many of us here. We have to rely on someone else's judgment and trust that they pick the best stuff for us. Thank goodness for the great sponsors here who do look out for us.

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson