Official Luthiers Forum!

I thought I should start another post as the first will get much too long.

The logs arrived today on Earl Houldens truck. Earl stated that the larger logs were about as big as he can handle. His grapple would not close over them and he had to lift them with a chain.

Here is the truck arriving at my place.



The truck is now in back of my property and is unloading the logs.



The truck looks a little different with all of that wood off.



Here they are on the ground. That's me with my youngest son, Leith. He likes big trucks!



Before Earl backed out, he loaded his trailer on the truck.



The day was drawing to a close but the sun was still shining on the mountain. Here is why we are called "High Mountain Tonewood Company". I can think of no better place to process these fine logs into hand split billets.



On Saturday the logs will be scaled (volume measured) and then I will start to process them. I will post pictures and a desription of the scaling process and then show how I process these logs into split billets and eventually into tops from the saw.

Please enjoy!

Shane

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Canada

Wow! Beautiful country. I may have to come up there some year and hand pick a few tops.

What are you going to do with the small logs?

Thanks for sharing the pics.

Thanks, Shane, Wow, what a beautiful setting!

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

This is so cool. I can't wait to see more.

Great Pictures Shane. What a good looking son you have. Save some of them tops for me, will ya?

Oh my, wood lust is kicking in big time.
May have to try some of your spruce, Shane.

What are the smaller logs with the dark heart?

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

What a great place you have there Shane.Beautiful mountains and thanks for the pics.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Great post, Shane. This is a very interesting saga. Looking forward to the next installment.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Thanks for the kind comments!!

Steve,

The smaller logs with the dark heart are three other species. They were removed with the second tree. One is a western red cedar, one is a hemlock and the thrid is an Amabilis Fir, we call them Balsam around here. None of these logs are large enough to do anything with musical instruments but they still need to be measured for the government so I will then turn them into lumber for buildings and fixtures around the property. I did, though, fall too large Amabilis Firs earlier this fall. I miss i.d'ed them as spruce, thinking that they tended more to the white spruce than Sitka, that won't happen again! They have been scaled in the bush and are still there, snowbound, till spring. One is a little raunchy and I will turn that whole tree into 2x8's for shop rafters and other projects. The other was attacked by fungus on the top of the tree but the lower portion is quite nice and I will be processing it into tonewood. There is a growing number of luthiers that I deal with who like to try alternate woods and have had good results with Amabilis Fir. I have not processed it before and I don't expect to sell much of it but I don't want to skid the tree out of the forest so I will block it out and process it on site then walk the billets to the road. It will likely be the summer before I have some of that wood for anyone adventurous. I have been told that it has a very pleasant tone but produces lower volume than the spruces. I am going to give it a try. That's fun part about this type of woodworking!

Hey Bruce! I welcome you and any other OLF'ers who want to come and see the set-up and hand pick a few sets.


Hey Tom, I just noticed you're a Senior now!! Man time flies eh?

Thanks again

Shane

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Canada

Awesome pic's Shane. Second the motion on a fine looking sun. Can't wait to se the next step.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Yea these are great pics, Thanks Shane!

Shane Fascinating, I'm womdering how you move the logs ?

Gotta say I've really enjoyed seeing your pictures — thanks for sharing the process.

I can hardly wait for the next installment!

Dennis E.38702.3183680556

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D..

Shane, thanks for giving us a "view" into your world. The process is very interesting and I am looking forward to seeing the logs get processed down into tops.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Shane,
Thanks for the beautiful pictures of the north country!!
It rminds me of the 10 yrs we spent in Alaska.
Clean living!!
Both of my children were born there.
Home at last!!!

Regards, Walter

You're welcome Walter. We are not at all very far from Alaska, maybe only 100 miles or so kind of south east of the pan-handle. More pictures to come in the next few days. It is a little drab looking right now, although beautiful in it's own way, with the decidous trees in their dormant phase. There are certainly a lot of greens come spring and summer. The seasons are strong here.

Shane

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Canada

Shane, let me thank you too for the pix. Seeing those really makes one appreciate the amount of work involved in getting tone wood to market. Also makes one wonder how you do it so cheaply? Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating higher prices, it's just that I was under the impression that someone in the luthiery biz was getting rich, and I knew it wasn't luthiers! Perhaps suppliers? But after looking at the mountain of work that awaits you, I'm forced to rethink my impressions. Maybe the folks getting rich are the guys who run luthiers' forums??

By the way--any luck locating some Yellow Cedar?

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

[QUOTE=Steve Kinnaird] it's just that I was under the impression that someone in the luthiery biz was getting rich [/QUOTE]

The transporters and shippers!

Thanks Steve,

I thought that understanding the process would be of interest, I will follow it through to the end. On the money issue, by the time the dust settles, just moving these two trees out of the bush and getting them delivered to my property will be the better part of $1,000. So, I am not at getting rich from any of this, as my wife so often reminds me. But I do truly enjoy getting quality wood to passionate builders. I onl;y make enough money from this to support my woodworking habits, the down side is it takes a tremendous amount of time and energy that keeps me away from woodworking habits. I am finding the balance though. Thanks again for looking in.

Oh ya, I do have a line on some yellow cedar, thanks for the nudge, I will make the call today or over the weekend. It is in timber form and has been stored away for a few years, should be wonderful!

Shane

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Canada

Shane, the pics are really nice. I am building a guitar right now with a top of yours and I am going to save these pics and show them to the guy who is getting the guitar. It'll help him understand where I got the top, and give him a nice perspective. I'll let you know how it turns out, it's getting lacquer right now.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Russel,

I will be moving some tomorrow. You'll get see my 1950, two cylinder gas powered John Deere MC bulldozer. Just a little toy. My 5 year old son coined it the "pushin' snow tractor". More tomorrow.

Shane

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Canada

That's a great idea Mark. Here is part one of the process. I will post the entire process in up coming threads right up to shipping some sets out. Please do post the finished pictures of that guitar and also please e-mail me some higher resolution shots and I will post them on my website.

Thanks again

Shane

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Canada

Great job Shane
I'm surprised for such a quantity of things match with this side of the planet; mountains, wood, chainsaws, sunsets, overcoats and kids... hehe, I cannot believe.
Am I on your list for one of those splits? I'm no longer a newbie now

Keep on posting photos and comments Shane, this is a great source of informations for us all.

Hey, why don't you plant a couple of european spruces in your backyard? I'd also like to swap some seeds with yours

Ciao - Gg

ggdelazzer38703.4613310185

Luigi,

Congrats on your "Groupie" designation! I too was taken by the similiarities in geography. It is pretty amazing really.

I just had the logs scaled this morning, I didn't take any pictures, it took about 15 minutes. I have some errands to run this morning and then I hope to buck a few rounds and start to split some billets this afternoon. I will take pictures of this process.

Shane

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Canada

I just had the most bizarre experiance reading this thread. I was looking at the pictures of Shane's recently cut trees and I could swear that I could actually smell the wood. I know may computer has a sound card but a smell card? Was it some sort of Pavlovian response? The effect only lasted a few seconds before I realized what happend. It turns out that I had just put up our Christmas tree and my hands had some sap on them.