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I was cutting firewood on my land today and decided to cut some boards out of a stump because I liked the figure. The boards are about 2" thick so I was going to cut them into two 1" pieces and have some sweet bookmatched drop-tops for my future guitar builds.

Here's the question: How do I dry these boards so that they don't warp and/or split???




Random question... Is this black walnut? I'm terrible at identifying trees.



Thanks

-Ben

I'm not sure enough to give any opinion on the ID but, you should seal the end grain, first of all. Then leave it dry slowsly, on sticks.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

i have always heard a year per inch if you are letting it air dry, seel the end grain with some wax and then find somewhere dry with consistant temp and humidity.

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~shad peters

http://www.flickr.com/photos/petersinstruments/
http://petersinstruments.blogspot.com/
http://petersinstruments.com/

Looks like black walnut to me. Give it a whiff, should be a dead giveaway if you've smelled walnut before. A photo of a larger area of bark would help as well.

Here's a better picture of the bark

Oh wow, you may in fact have yourself a persimmon tree there, a true ebony If so, I would love to have a fingerboard and bridge from it.

How hard does it feel, and is it ridiculously heavy? Might not be able to judge that well when it's still wet though. But the bark is definitely not walnut, which is more "veined" looking. The only persimmon trees I know of around here are just babies so they don't have the chunky bark yet (although they do make very tasty fruit in the fall), but a quick google search turned up many results looking just like it, and I don't know any other trees around here with such dark heartwood either. Lucky!

Yep...that is persimmom. The bark is a dead give away. Wax the ends, sticker and stack in a dry place that is not too hot.

What are the sizes of those boards?

Mike

I cut them each into two (bookmatched) they are all at least 20"x15" but obviously they vary in size. I wasnt aware that persimmon was an ebony! very cool. Thanks for all the help guys

Oh by the way, I have tons of those persimmon trees on my land. I'm hoping to find some boxelder and black walnut as well, but it's 150 acres of wooded land so it may take me a while to find them.

Wow, well I'm certainly jealous. I have to get my lumber the old fashioned way: overpaying for it.

Gabby I don't know about where you live, but where I live, 150 acres of timberland is going to command a nice tax each year, and that overpaying you are talking about looks somewhat better!

There are two main uses, or was, for persimmon. Shuttles for weaving machines and golf club head. I don't know about the density compared to African ebony, but it is tough as nails! I would nearly bet it would make a decent fretboard, assuming it is stable enough.

Mike

I haven't used it personally, but have heard of other people trying it before. Check out the one by Al Carruth a ways down this page: http://www.alcarruthluthier.com/new.htm

But you're right, I was assuming it would be heavier than it is. That page you linked lists it at 53–55 lb/cu ft though, which sounds like most likely hard enough.

And anyway, I'm willing to give it a shot even if it turns out to be unusable. I'd love to do an all-domestic guitar sometime. Could use osage orange for the FB/bridge, but I prefer darker color... yet would rather use light color than stain it, so the persimmon is better
Would be even better to do one using only woods that grow right in this area, but I don't think there's anything really good for tops. Maybe black walnut, but seems a little thunky.