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Got ahold of some old stair treads that came out of a house that was completed in the 50s. The stair case was right over the furnace in the home. Essentially I think the furnace served to air dry these all those years of cold Michigan winters.
The house was renovated recently before I got there, unfortunately all the other treads were used for firewood. I sawed a piece off for a density test and it smelled REALLY strongly of pine. If it's pine it's the densest growth rings I've ever seen of it in my lifetime.

None of the 3 pieces are perfectly on quarter but none are flat sawn. The large piece is just under 12 inches wide and about 3/4 thick, with the screw holes cut off I'll have about 34 inches in length too. All the pieces are wicked straight, some wear on one edge from being walked on for decades but other than that it's just big billets of old tight grain wood.

What I'd like input on. What would you do with these? Bracing? Tops? Or if they're not good for anything feel free to say so.

The way I see it, I could get maybe 1 or two tops out of the two larger pieces and some bracing out of the smaller piece. Or I could just use them for bracing alot of guitars.
I'm all ears for suggestions, the more wisdom the better.

Gorgeous! Tragic that the rest were burned.

If you cut the big one into three slices it will make two harp guitars. My first HG pattern used 34" for the harp arm piece, but I think a little bigger would be better, so leave the screw holes and try to squeeze between them or cover one in the transition to the harp headplate. For the treble side, here's an example of how to get both from one slice. This pattern is 20" length, 8" lower bout, 4 1/4" waist, and there's plenty of room to spare for a larger pattern.

If you can get four slices, you should be able to get four regular guitar tops by laying them out that way.

I have a niche line of 'barn wood' guitars that uses boards just like that. you might be surprised as to what that wood has to offer but then again it's a risk. I built one barn wood guitar, the back and sides from white oak and the top what I believe to be Southern Yellow Pine just like all the other ones but this one was special. It just came out right. It was a commission that the owner sold on eBay years later. To date it was one of the best guitars I've ever built. The eBay buyer found me and contacted me to built him another. So I did of course. And I have built several since but nothing was as good as this one. Point being, ya just never know. I would build with that stuff in a heart beat but I have been doing that too. The risk you have is in building with it and hoping it comes out well. If it were me, again, I'd be on it.

Those look by the pics to be vertical grain. I would use them for tops and what ever cut offs for braces. Not sure why you would say the do not look perfectly "on quarter,' they look perfect to me.

Dan, I just finished a classical completely out of Douglas fir and I'm pretty impressed by the little thing - I'll be posting some pictures and hopefully some clips shortly. I don't think I would use your pine for braces but I would sure consider it for tops or backs or whatever.

I have also built four telecaster style guitars from hundred year old Ponderosa pine from a historic barn in our area. These guitars were donated to the conservation group that owns the barn and were auctioned at a fund raising. I thought they were great little electrics and I have one piece of the barnwood left to build one for myself.

I don't think that is pine it looks more like fir
what does it smell like?
If it is pine it may be yellow pine not a good guitar wood but usable for sure on other things

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Looks more like d. fir SYP in texas with a long summer an short winters has a different set of growth rings . This fir looks like its from the west coast With even bands of summer and winter wood . I/ve used fir for tops . Splintery . an hard.I/m a fan of d. fir

How do you tell the difference between fir and pine?

You might want to weigh it and measure it and figure out the density before you saw it up (it will be easier to calculate) That may give you a better idea of what you are dealing with.
Both yellow pine and Douglas fir are dense woods and look similar to what your pictures show. Yellow pine tends to be more resinous and harder and heavier and was often used for stair treads.
I am a fan of building with "less usual" materials, and I am willing to accept less than stellar results from my "experiments". Both yellow pine and Doug fir are outside of the density ranges of most of the commonly used softwood soundboard materials but have better stiffness than mahogany, which is a dense wood often used for soundboards.
As others have stated, good results can be had from both of these woods. But the choice remains - do you try something a little different, or do you use materials that are commonly used by most luthiers, and available for comparatively little money in the "lower" but still good quality grades?
One good thing about wood - "it don't eat nuthin" as they say. You can stash it away and decide what to do with it later if you are undecided now.

Here is the straight grained douglas fir that I used for the classical.




For Dan, if you would like to compare what I have to your wood I have some scraps and would be happy to drop a piece in the mail to you. Also if it is fir let me just say that I am totally happy with the classical that I just made and would highly recommend that you try it. The engineering properties are close to traditional woods, it taped great and while the guitar has only been finished for a few days I am pretty impressed with how it sounds.

I cut a piece off for the density test and it *reeked* of pine. The moment I started cutting it it punched me in the face with the smell.

I'll have to borrow a scale with a digital readout to weigh it and get an idea of the density. I'll let you know what I find out.

Freeman I really appreciate the offer for a scrap piece to compare against what I have here. I'll PM you my details.

That looks like Doug fir to me, too. I've used a lot of it over the years, mostly on dulcimers and hammered dulcimers, where it has worked fine. It has more of a tendency to split than many softwoods (except WRC and redwood), and is usually very dense and stiff. It has a similar 'resin' smell to pine when cut, but not exactly the same. From what I've seen the resin channels in Doug are smaller than they usually are in pine, or, at least, the white pine I see. Doug was widely used for stair treads and flooring in the 50s and earlier; my house, which was built in the late 30s has fir floors throughout (the real estate add said 'fur floors'.....).

Whatever the species is, that piece has very heavy latewood lines. The late wood adds significantly to the density and stiffness along the grain, but the density goes up faster. You'd want to work the to thinner than usual, and even so it will tend to end up heavier at a given stiffness. This keeps the power of the guitar down a bit, but adds to 'headroom'.

PM me a snail mail addy and I'll cut an 8 x 10 piece and drop it in the mail. You can wet it and yours with naphtha and compare and do whatever other tests you like. I'm not 100 percent sure mine is fir, I was told it was the gym floor at a local middle school and I'm quite sure they would not have used pine for that. We also have Doug fir thru most of our old farm house, including the upstair flooring, and my wood looks exactly like the house wood.

It is fun to build out of "found wood" and I encourage you to do it!
I have built 5 guitars, 0 and 00 size, of Southern Yellow Pine. The bodies were all Pine, top back and sides. All were good sounding, good volume and tone, and have held up well. I sold all but one. My regular every day "beater" is one of the 5, playing it since 2-2018. It sounds similar to any other guitar that I have built of Mahogany & Spruce. I built them to show that it is "not the wood but the builder".

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Hi David,
I thought of you when I heard Laura was going to make landfall near Beaumont. How did Y'all make out - O.K. I hope?

Did a little density test. Comes out to 34. So I stand corrected since that's a Douglas fir number. I guess doug fir smells like pine? Had no idea

A number is just a number - the wood database gives "average density". Old dry wood might fall below the average, or might still be above it. Loblolly, a "yellow" pine species averages 35 lbs./cu. ft., but the weight alone doesn't determine the species.
Ultimately the species doesn't matter. To paraphrase someone whose name I've forgotten - there are two types of wood, wood I would use and wood I wouldn't.
Knowing how to distinguish between them can be the hard part.

No, Douglas fir smells quite different from pine. It is a common wood used for plywood.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

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John

As john says, Doug and pine do smell different, even though both can have a strong resin scent.

34? Is that lb/ft^3 ? That would be a specific gravity of about .54, which is certainly in the normal range for Doug. I have seen Euro, Red and Sitka that dense; all outliers, of course. I have not measured much pine, and certainly none that dense, but I've given up on being surprised. If i is pine, and has that grain structure, it could well be that dense,but it would be something of a freak of nature.

Yes that is the lb/ft3. Cutting into it it smells super strong of pine so I guess I should trust my nose. I got a feeling that a guitar top out of this stuff will be interesting. Worst that can happen is that it fails

By the way thanks John for your input

Hi Alan,
The "yellow pine" group tends to be heavier than "white" pines. According to the Wood Database longleaf and slash pines average 41 lbs/cu ft., loblolly 35 lbs., and several others between 35 to 40 lbs/ cu.ft..
I once worked with some south american pine that was so heavy and resinous it made the southern yellow pines look like lightweights.

Maybe the south american pine you mention would be dense/heavy enough to use for back and sides? Not sure how it would bend though.

Fir is dense enough for B&S. There's a new thread on this site about a fir guitar, with pictures that indicate it can be bent: it would probably resist crushing on the inside of the bend better than a softer wood.

See David Newton's post. SYP can be quite dense. I have some rich Southern yellow pine that feels like a piece of rosewood.

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John

I built a guitar entirely of Alaskan Yellow Cedar. It is fairly lightweight at 31 lbs/ft3, and after 2 years the body is still in fine shape

Ed

The Spanish cypress they use for B&S on Flamenco guitars is quite low in density, and similar to Port Orford cedar. Yew is another low density wood that's used for B&S. Doug fir overlaps the hardwoods in density by a fair amount, which is one reason they use it for flooring.