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I have a neighbor who recently took down a large Red Spruce tree - too close to the house, etc., and I quickly lobbied to take some of the wood off his hands. I've got a Grizzly 17 inch bandsaw that I bought a couple of years ago, and wanted to test it out on resawing some tops.


He graciously had the tree surgeons cut a few sections to my specs and even had them drop them off on my front lawn. Peeling the bark and splitting them was my first introduction to just how much work this process is.....





You can see that this wood has some extremely wide growth rings - both because the tree grew in a residential area, plenty of sun and water, and in a climate that was warmer than would have produced tight rings. Also, my well-meaning neighbor gave me the "fattest part" of the trunk - nearest the bottom, where there was quite a bit of compression - my mistake for not marking billets on the tree....

After painting the ends, and letting them season in a greenhouse - out of the rain, but no climate control, I inspected them to find that they'd dried out a lot, and were probably ready for the resaw. The first question was how would I get them roughly to shape, so that I could cut them on the bandsaw... Another post here showed how easy it was to (carefully) use a chain saw to rough out the billets.



Now the fun begins.... After finding some of the choicest spots on the billet, trying to avoid knots, end checks (yeah, still some of that, even with the ends painted) I started cutting sets. I've used this forum heavily in terms of figuring out the optimum blade and setup for resawing. Thank you!! There's nothing more satisfying than succeeding in cutting a straight line with a band saw!

So I start cutting sets - and here's where I begin to appreciate the work and expertise that goes into getting nice clean sets of tonewood.

First sets - oops - end checking has drifted into the pattern. That won't work.... scrap.

Next sets - oops - lots of pitch pockets - maybe with careful placement I can squeeze the OM pattern between them. It'll be reaslly tight, though.


Finally, after cutting a few more with pitch pockets in the wrong spaces, I started to find a clean spot on the billet. The sets start to come out relatively straight and clean.... (they are oversized, so the really wavy stuff will not fall within the pattern.)

So, I've ended up with about 25 usable sets - some very nice if you like wood with "character" - they're certainly stiff enough and the tap tone is very nice - and more for use with a sunburst. All in all, a fun and satisfying exercise, but I've certainly gained some appreciation for what it takes to get clean, quartered tops... I won't complain about the cost of tonewood any more...

Uhhhhhh......

Amen......Amen......and....Amen......

Those that haven't gone through the hassle of 'finding' the right wood, and processing it into usable high grade tonewood, really have no idea what goes into it. ESPECIALLY when you are dealing with spruce tops. It's maddening so see so much wood comes off the saw that either can't be used OR just isn't cosmetically up to par. Let's face it, most builders and most consumers, look for cosmetics.

It's simply a fact. Paying over $100 dollars for a high grade Adi top is cheap when compared against the time and work involved in producing that one top.

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

I will 2nd that emotion Been there done that, thanks to all the shmexperts that cut tonewood

Err, you mean 200$ or more for decent Adi, which is still OK imo. I very happily pay about 130-150 for high quality Euro spruce, but let's not digress.

Thing is I am doing a lot of trekking and mountaineering in the Carpathians and see like.. ugh millions of spruce trees. Those that look like potential pretty-tonewood sources are rare in the muntains. Most trees are too small, or too branchy, or too crooked, or too spiraled (you can see that on the bark) and so on. And I imagine many of those that look good, once probed will show wide grain and who knows what else.

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Build log

Thanks. You know, I think I'd do it again - even with the waste. If you don't mind wide rings - I think it's possible to get some very usable wood from these trees. I'm going to keep my eye out for another in the area - and if I avoid the compression wood at the bottom, I htink the yield will be a lot better.

Although it's not cosmetically valuable, I'm looking forward to building with it. It's very stiff, light, and has a very nice "pong" when tapped.

Corkey, that's awesome, nice job! I think it's great you get use out of a burdensome tree. Post pics of the finished guitar.

Thanks for putting this into perspective and showing what it takes....

For me - it really shows why older instruments tended to be made out of wood that wasn't particularly pretty.... They used what they could get.... It wasn't until America started logging off our old growth forests that it opened up a timber supply of unblemished, more or less perfect top wood... so we could easily reject stuff with small blemishes out of hand rather than either using it or working around it....

Cutting your own "Tonewood" from logs is a pretty hit or miss thing... I had a big Red oak down out back - it had been pushed over when the house was built - and they just left it... Been sitting there about 2-years now.... I finally got out the chain saw and the sledge and wedges this summer to have a look-see.... Full of bugs, borers, and termites.... It won't be good for much other than the smoker.... Same for a big white oak log that was sitting out back behind the neighbor's place..... Same story for a big red oak we had taken down this fall that had died but was still standing next to the house.... The whole heart was rotten, full of termites, borers, and bugs....

I suppose it tells you that the "Natural Cycle" is working in full force...It's just disappointing that none of that wood will be much good except to feed the bugs and worms..... Unfortunately - it's also why "Tonewood" is just so expensive.....

Thanks