Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi all,

I've PM'd Steve @ Colonial already, but I'll post for all.

I grew up in the Adirondacks, and am here until Thursday AM. I asked a logger (who was driving in the parade..) if he ever saw red spruce and he said sometimes. What should I ask him? I have friends with sawmills. TIA

The bigger the better....go for at least 24" diameter logs, as clear as possible, and as straight gowing as possible. Trees the grow with a twist will have more runout than one without a twist. Take that to an extreme, and very twisted growing trees will be virtually usless. You want a good clear straight section free of limbs or evidence that there were limbs at any time. If you find some like this, let me know, I'll "go in" on it with you, as I'm sure others here would too.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

[QUOTE=Don Williams] If you find some like this, let me know, I'll "go in" on it with you, [/QUOTE]

Don,

Snap out of it buddy, remember the wife's SUV! You're going to get yourself in trouble here.

D'OH ! I forgot... and to make matters worse, she decided she wants the new Lexus SUV. Groan....



       Don Williams38538.5208217593

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Lexus SUV???? Man, you luthiers must make a ton of money.   

BG

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

there goes the brazilian, and the adi, and the ziricote and...

Terry,
Take Don's suggestions to heart. You'll more than likely have a very difficult time locating a tree large enough in diameter. (Not to rain on your parade)
Experience tells me that a tree may look great on the outside and when you cut into it, stain, stain, stain, stain. Staining us just one of many "bummers" that you're more than likely to encounter.
I could write a VERY long explaination of what and how to do it but it'd take forever. If you get the chance, please call me or PM your number and I'll call you.

Steve

[QUOTE=Simplyhere] Lexus SUV???? Man, you luthiers must make a ton of money.    BG[/QUOTE]

Lexus? Did I say Lexus? D'Oh! I meant Saturn. Sorry, didn't want to give the perception that I had money. Any. At all. That comes from GIVING GUITARS AWAY at BELOW MY COST.
You know what I mean "Simply Here"?

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Last summer, Dave Dumont and I processed a couple of red spruce logs from the auction in Maine. I have cut/split/sawn a lot of wood in my life, and thought I knew what I was doing. Not quite. Like most things in lutherie, there are dozens of things that can, and will go wrong.

Picking the log is the start. Obviously, it should be big, straight and have little/no twist. It's difficult for even seasoned sawyers to guess what you will find inside. There are lots of things to look for. Even a slight twist can be very hard to spot and will cut down your yield tremendously.

You are likely to lose 2-4" of diameter when the sapwood goes blue on you. And it probably will. You will find lots of internal defects, so suddenly your 24" tree is barely yielding parlor tops. You really need something more like 28+" to get usable D-sized tops.

The sawyer up there had set aside 30 logs, from the(literally) thousands they had cut that year. Less than 15 were actually judged to be instrument (A) quality, and I could say that 5 of those were pretty good (AA). One of ours was high quality (AAA) - but not master grade by any means. Of course it was small, and mostly we got parlor tops out of the best looking log.

If you knew someone with a virgin stand of wood that was willing to let you pick a tree - that would be one approach. Trying to find an instrument log otherwise is almost a needle in a haystack.

Not to mention moving, storing, splitting, debarking, and then resawing large pieces of wood. You'll need a 12" jointer, a resaw carriage and a BIG bandsaw. I'm sure the resawing contributed to my shoulder problems.

I'm not saying it's impossible, because I would call our experiment a success - but it was WAY more work and money than we anticipated. If you want to stockpile tops, or resell spruce - it might be worthwhile.

Otherwise, pick up the phone and order the tops!Steve Spodaryk38538.8461921296

I'm back in PA. Thanks to all who replied, lotsa good points. I will need to consider this and more in the next years if I do any harvesting. Plan, plan, plan! We'll see what happens in the next 2-5 years.