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I have some nice maples on my property and would like to harvest one for future use. Are there any good resources I should check out or important tips? It wont be a huge tree, probably 12-16 inches diameter max, I mostly want to use it for electric necks and laminate necks. Can I rough mill it on my bandsaw without one of those fancy milling contraptions?
Thanks

I doubt that you will get more than a little harvestable wood for luthiery. You want quartered wood when possible without heart or sapwood. Some neck blanks may be harvestable but getting it to dry without movement can be rough . In this case you will do better or harvest and split like firewood and pick out the good pieces. You may be surprised at all the internal flaws you may find .
You will want to wax the ends and let air dry about 1 yr per inch . Keep the wood is a dry place , stickered and weighted down. You want good air circulation. I hope you get lucky and get some good chunks , but for all the years I have been doing this , it isn't easy finding good wood from this size tree. I don't even look at anything under 24 inches anymore.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

John, thanks for the info. I could go bigger, there are trees up to 36" but I just thought it would be a lot easier to manage a smaller tree.

Bigger is better

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I agree, bigger is better. I used to cut & split maple for Windsor chairs way back when, but for luthiery, I'd find a local guy with a bandsaw mill (kind of a "bandsaw on a boat trailer"). Fell & resaw on the spot, so you can transport, then sticker & dry it. Lot of work. (As often happens with woodworking, the initial reaction is "I can do that!" In the long run, may be better to leave this kind of specialized work to the experts. Just my opinion.)

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Dave
Milton, ON

As the others said I'd recommend getting a sawyer with a bandmill to do it and not just because I am one
With a bandmill and a reasonably skilled operator you will get a much better cut-out. He will be able to minimize waste and mill larger portions at a time. The longer the board the more options you have when you start chopping it up.

Once you've got it cut up the key is to get the ends waxed, get it stickered and get air on it asap. The faster you get it on sticks with some air and a little heat the better your color is going to turn out. If you wait too long it will stain.

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I think I may have a neighbor with some sort of mill, I might give him a call. Would it be okay to keep it outside in the elements stickered? I do not really have the space right now to store indoors.

no
luthier grade would need to be cared for and kept out of the weather. I would go so far and say find a kiln in your area and get it dried properly.

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Harvest the Maple tree (especially "Sugar" Maple) in the fall or winter months, when the sap is not "running." Very difficult to dry Maple (or Holly) without getting a gray or blue-gray stain throughout the wood, and the amount of sugars in the wood is one critical key. The other critical key is to go from felling to sawing to stickering nearly immediately.

Unless your sawyer is set up for and understands how to quartersaw, and slices "through-and-through" instead, you'll only get one or two slabs in the center of the log that are quartersawn, plus you will get a couple of slices that are well flatsawn, which makes good neck stock for laminated necks (quartersawn once rotated.) Also, unless you really want 1-piece necks (and the additional risk and hassle of drying wood that thick), you'll do well to have everything slabbed to 5/4" thick or maybe 6/4" thick. 5/4 with a skunk stripe makes a good laminated neck, and if you're lucky enough to get quartersawn billets wide enough for guitar backs, then 5/4 will net 6 resawn slices, which is a heck of a lot better than the 5 you'll get with 4/4" thick material.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

FWIW, I'm not a luthier, but I am a part time sawyer, with a 25hp, 30" bandmill, and I agree with those who say that the nicest wood comes from big logs, especially when you're quartering. As far as drying, all the information and experience that I've gathered says that air drying for as long as possible before putting the wood into a kiln makes for the most stable wood, and the easiest to work as well. There's lots of bandmill operators in Ontario, so I'd also agree with those who say to mill on site and then transport and store stickered and under cover until you need it.

YMMV

cheers

John

I went out this morning and looked at trees. Did not go far in the deep snow so only found 2 larger ones so far. Would like to get going with this soon, before too long the sap will start running. Turns out our neighbor does have some sort of mill and does a lot of logging so we are getting in touch with him (neighbors here however are not next door). The first tree is a bit larger but not as straight as the second.

I just "harvested" some maple from a large (65 year old, 36" + diameter) maple that blew over in a wind storm on my father-in-laws property. We cut and split large wedges with chainsaws and malls. But, as my wedge has dried in the shop, I have noticed how "punky" the outer 4 inches are (almost looks rotted as it dries and cracks up). I thought I had a good 13" wide billet for guitar backs and sides, but now I think it is more like 6-7". I am no export and may have done something wrong, but I would say harvesting maple is no easy thing - especially for guitars.

Edward, You're wise to be looking at straight trunk trees - that looks like a winner. Maple trees often get a twist, and as you can guess, that would mean runout, more difficulty in drying (trying to maintain a flat board) and lower stability in the dry wood. The exterior of a Maple log, the sapwood, is the commercial high-grade material (just the opposite of many other trees, such as Walnut, where the heartwood is valued.) It takes a mighty big Maple tree to have 8+ inches of sapwood - I'd guess that the tree would have to be at least 24" to 30" in diameter to get 8" wide quartersawn material that is all sapwood. On the other hand, just because furniture makers have a prejudice against Maple heartwood doesn't mean that you need to, and if you'll leave some heartwood on your billets, you'll have a much easier time hitting the 8" wide mark.

Just ink: sounds like the tree was dead, or partially dead when it fell. Rot sets in pretty quickly as the tree dies - the opportunistic fungus spores are on the tree its whole life, and the living tree fights them off as part of its battle to survive. Once the tree is sick or dead, it is quickly invaded by the body snatchers, er, I mean fungus.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Good info Dennis. I am not really seeking guitar sets, just wood for electric necks/laminate necks and for other furniture projects. I am thinking of getting it milled just into large chunks and doing the bulk of the resawing on my new Laguna bandsaw.