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The other day I was visiting a friend when his neighbour told us that he had cut a tree that could interest us.
The tree is a cypress; I am sure it is not the Cupressus sempervires (the wood used in the flamenco guitar backs and sides) because I asked about the shape of the tree.
It must be a Cupressus macrocarpa(Montery cypress) or the Cupressus lusitanica(Mexican cypress).
My question is: How should I saw these logs in order to have the best use for the wood?
I didn't have the opportunity to measure the diameter but I took a picture ( you can see my sunglasses on top of one log to have an idea of the dimension:



Thank you

Hopefully it wont check too bad, its checking on the 'quarter it looks like.

I think it depends on what tools you have to saw this with. But you want to quarter it, Im sure Shane or someone will chime in.

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Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
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Antonio,

I don't deal a lot with hardwoods but when I do I typically block them out (process them into 2 to 4 inch thick quartersawn planks) on my bandsaw mill. For spruce and cedar I first hand split them and take the wood to the carriage on my re-saw to get flat faces for sawing into sets.

If those were mine and I felt that they had some potential for musical instruments (I can't really tell from the pictures though) I would buck them to about 5.5 feet in length ( 3 feet for sides plus 2 feet backs) with a chainsaw and then saw about a 4 inch wide section right across the middle on the sawmill making sure that the centre of the tree is the same distance up from the saw carriage on both ends and that the middle of the tree is right in the middle of the plank I cut. It is a bit of fooling around but that is why tonewood costs what it does. Most people would then let this plank dry for a couple of years and then saw it into sets. If it is not highly figured you could saw into sets and dry as thinner pieces which would allow you to use it sooner but there are gambles involved. I would then evaluate the off cut slabs to see if I could cut more quartersawn sides from them.

I hope this helps, I am not sure of what equipment you have available to process with.

Shane

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Canada

Find someone who has a wood mizer or eq (portable bandsaw mill) and have them cut into manageable pieces to run through your bandsaw. I wouldn't get your hopes up too high - usually guitar quality wood comes from much larger trees - but you never know...
-C

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Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

Thank you all for your answers.

I don't have the tools for this kind of job but I will find someone who can do it for me.
The price for this wood it was really nothing. I will post my results later.