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Hi everyone! Being the aspiring lutheier I am/hope to be someday (hahaha), I've heard gossip about using Cypress for guitar making... one of my best friends had a HUGE cypress tree in his backyard for years... when the last big hurricane came through NC, that tree fell. Today, he told me I could take my pick of the wood if I thought it was something I'd ever use. Being the experts ya'll are, I thought I would ask if this is something I should jump on, or just let him use it for the ceiling of his cabin he's building in the mountains? Any and all advice is welcome and greatly appreciated! :-)

Go for it! It'll be a lot of work to dry, split and resaw, but what an opportunity if the wood turns out to be clean and straight! Be careful of hidden nails, and look for sections without branches or branch stubs.

Contact any of our friendly (really!) wood vendors here for advice, if they don't chime in on this thread.

A few things...

first if there is any part of the end of the log exposed (fresh wood, not stump) then the faster you put a sealer on it the better. A wood sealer will slow the loss of moisture and help to prevent splitting and cracking.

To saw the log into boards one of the choices is to bring the sawmill to the log. There are many brands of bandsaw mills and several chainsaw based sawmills that are portable and can be brought to the log.

Sometimes in ads in local papers you can find listings for people who own portable mills that will for a fee cut the wood up for you.

For use as tonewood you not only want sections that are free of knots or branches but you also want to split the log sections into wedges (billets) as son as possible after you saw it. By spliting the log into wedges you can then cut it into quartersawn material at a later date in that when you split the round log into sections it reduces the stress that causes the log to split. It is still advisable that you seal the ends with a wood sealer (Woodcraft and others carry "green wood" sealer) of which a common brand is Anchorseal.

I use a chainsaw based sawmill attachment as it is cheaper than a bandsaw mill. I already had the chainsaw so the attachment that allows me to cut planks up to 34" wide was about $300. I use a "thin kelf" sawchain that takes a 1/4" kerf out of the wood each pass.

What I do is trade people my cutting of their fallen trees in exchange for part of the wood from the logs. This would be a way in which you could get someone to cut up the section of the log you are interested in and your friend could still get the wood he wants for the cabin he is building. In that way the log will be more completely used and you and him can get the wood from the tree.

Another cool thing that people want from a tree on their property is a bench, tabletop or some other item fashioned from their own wood.

The weekend before last I cut up three logs for a friend, 2 red oak 14 feet long and 26 & 29 inches in diameter, and a cherry 16 feet long and 32 inches in diameter. What I got out of it was some 10"+ quartersawn oak and cherry and he got the rest.

Most people with portable mills charge a rate per hour plus the cost of the chain or bandsaw blade, gas and oil or some combination.

You know, I might be too late... he said I could have my pick of the "planks," so something tells me they are far from quartersawn. I wish I'd have gotten to that log before he sawed it down!   

John, maybe not, just look closely at the ends of the planks, you may find that the ones near the center of the tree are quartered. It really just depends on how it was cut up.
Every time I stop by Home Depot, Lowes or Menard's I always check there Mahogany and Maple stock, I have seen some well quartered pieces here and there.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

I will certainly check then. Would this be more of a soundboard or a back and sides type wood?

Hey John,

I con't realy know what you have there but around these parts the only cypress that we have of note is Yellow Cedar. A GREAT wood for back and sides for flamencos and some even like to make the odd top out of it. But generally cypress is used for backs and sides on flammers.

If it is already sawn then just do as Lance said and look at the pile of wood. It would have likely been sawn starting at the top working down which would mean the middle pieces (and the biggest pieces...BONUS!) will be quatersawn.

Good Luck with it!

Shane

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Canada