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It seems that fortunately I have a relative who wants a black walnut tree cut down, and another relative who cuts trees down... and I have the opportunity to slice up this walnut tree for lumber. I would like to cut some of it for making guitar backs & sides. I am wondering about how to best utilize the log for making these guitar parts. Would I cut thick chunks and re-saw it thin after drying, or is it best to cut thin now?

I have means to store this in an unheated area for drying.

The tree is about 27" diameter and about 20' of good straight trunk.

Any tips are greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
James B.

James-
A few general hints- check with the sawyers like Shane Neifer here for expert help.
You will want to get the log cut (into 2 and 3 ft sections??) and split into billets fairly quickly after the tree is down.
I'd also coat the ends with end sealer which is made just for this purpose. Keep the billets cool and covered from the sun, and re-saw as soon as possible. Good stickers and storage are a must- especially if you have wood with figure it may 'want' to curl up.
The general outline of the process is shown at http://www.highmountaintonewood.com/id26.htm
Top wood dries more quickly (and has straighter grain, probably) than your walnut, but the idea is the same.

Cheers
John

I think it depends on what you have and how you want it cut... Have you opened it up to see the quality of the wood? There is a whole lot of boring, unspectacular gray/brown looking "Black Walnut" in the world... There is also a whole lot of good "Furniture grade" Black Walnut that isn't Guitar material....

Hidden knots, rotten internal branches, Burl, internal bark, cracks, horse shoes, lead shot, and all sorts of other treasure await you...

You really need to see what is in there.... Not sure if you really want 500 back/sides sets of plain, boring, gray/tan colored, straight grained Black walnut... and if you resaw it into 2' slices for backs and 32" slices for Sides... you really can't do much else with the wood... maybe you could make it into a bunch of end tables to sit behind the couch or chair legs or something...

You may find out once you open it up that it is good but fairly boring stuff.. but you still want a couple sets, but not several hundred... At that point, flat saw it and keep the 1 center cut "Quartersawn" board for Guitars... and then make furniture or something with the rest.

Anyway, Shane Neifer has posted several "How To's" on how to slice up Guitar wood...

Thanks

John

That’s exactly what I was planning on doing – not making a zillion guitar backs but just a few. The majority will be for furniture or electric bass guitars or something else.

I will plan on cutting a small amount into guitar sized bits, and see what happens.

And I expect that there might be a few metallic surprises in there – hopefully nothing major like a horseshoe!

Thanks for the help so far...

JB

James-
You didn't mention what tools you have available- if you have a band mill or other portable sawmill available, and the equipment to move around big chunks of log, your strategy will change. In that case, I'd agree with truckjohn to just saw it into planks.
With enough wedges, you can even split a fairly big log in half to see what you have hidden in there, and then plan your sawing strategy. Often there will be a section with interesting figure somewhere in the length, especially in urban or farmyard trees.

Cheers
John

Take it to a band saw sawyer.

However if the tree was growen in a urban or even a rural back yard they probably won't touch it...metal, nails screws, bullets ect. And if they do and hit metal... thats it! They stop cutting that log and you pay for that blade to be resharpened.

That leaves chain sawing it into managable lengths for resawing on a band saw. Wear face protection and thick clothing...don't need no metal flying out at you in the sawdust or a chain break.

Then you have to decide how much of it can be quartered, flat or rift sawen for your purposes. Befor each slice, check for metal.

Invest in a metal detector. Cheaper than blades.

Oce you have the log split...you gonna wanna determine if it has a twist...if it does then you
gonna have to decide if you wanna compensate for the twist when ripping it or if you can live with the runout.

Blessings
the
Padma

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I have contacted at least one guy who says he is willing to tow his portable band saw mill on site to cut it up for C$55/hr. I've heard all the horror stories of metal objects in the trees, and yes the big mills won't go near these trees. I will have to confirm with the sawyer about what happens in that case.

If fears of embedded metal are too great then I am left with cutting into smaller chunks and trying to split it some how. However, I feel like I can't let this opportunity pass by. My brother-in-law was going to split this and sell it for firewood, and I can't see that as being a morally acceptable option.

I'm sure there are some great looking items of wood which can be crafted from that tree... and hopefully it works out that I can score some good wood for cheap. If I have to buy 3 band saw blades on top of the sawyer labour and also pay the bro-in-law for the equivalent cost of firewood... yikes!

Yup. Check first on this.
I've worked with a couple of different sawyers over the years, and both of them took an 'oh, well, this happens every once in a while' attitude to hitting an occasional nail. Metal detectors are pretty cheap these days, http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=45125&cat=1,240 and checking 'as you saw' would probably help to convince the sawyer that you are doing your best to avoid damage to the blade. Most competent sawyers sharpen/repair their own blades, in my very limited experience, so the cost may be less than you think.



A bunch of wedges will do the trick with enough persistence. Even a longer length can be split with enough wedges. You probably need a chainsaw cut to get started, and a couple of metal wedges, and then you can follow along with wooden wedges. Bandsaw some hardwood scrap from home into wedges, or just take chunks of branches and make wedges out of them. Oh, yeah and a sledge or the hammer end of a splitting maul....no need for the trip to the gym that day.

Cheers
John

I recently carve a Totem pole for a client out of a 20" dia Walnut log that had been on his familys property for 60 + years. It had nails screws, barbed wire , bolts and bullets all embedded 2-5" into the wood rings. I trashed a few nicely sharpened tools working on that project. Most mills have sensors to locate these items but you gotta dig em out before you put a portable mill to it or you'll have a very unhappy Sawyer.
I still have a 14" X 6' section for myself that I need to do something with someday. Oh, boy!
Kent Bailey

Debark and Seal the ends really good after cutting, regardless of whether it gets milled right away or not. The trick to natural curing is to keep the drying as even as possible. Keep it out of the sun get it off the ground. This will minimize end checking. If it starts checking (drying too fast) on the outside face, dampen the log slightly and wrap it up in plastic.

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I have milled thousands of board ft. of Walnut for my guitars.With Walnut , you want as much loss of good wood kept to a minumum.End checking can be the biggest problem, so as soon as it is cut to length i would use an end sealer on all the endgrain.If you want the contrast of the lighter sap wood against the dark heartwood, you should slab it right away as the longer it sits, the less contrast you will have there. If you want all dark wood, then let the log sit for a year before you slab it up.I always make my slabs as long as i can which reduces the amount of end grain exposed to crack.Then after it is dried while stickered i cut it to length according to what i want.You can plan it out better this way around defects and tramp metal if there is any.I cut for the least amount of grain runout, so if thr tree is real strait, i can get longer boards from it.If is has curves in it, it will have to be cut shorter of course.

Yuo, for hardwoods, I would do just as has been mentioned. I recently cut a couple of "yard" trees on my woodmizer, a maple and pine, both had nails and toasted a band. As John A stated, most of us have automatic band sharpeners (they are expensive but do a great job) and buy bands by the box, so we don't get too worried about hitting nails, as long as it is only like one per tree or so. I would not like to hit something larger, like a lag bolt or anything.

I don't have a metal detector and the reason I don't is because all of the reviews I see say that they don't penetrate very deep to really be effective for a mill, some as shallow as only 1/8 of inch when they advertise to 1".

But I too would saw into planks and I would start to just one side of the heart because then if the wood was fantastic (lots of curl or something) then I could continue to quartersaw by flipping slabs.

Good luck and post some pics of the wood and the process!

Shane

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Hitting nails is just a part of milling. Wrecking the odd blade happens.. It's when you get a log loaded with nails. Sometimes you just have to give up and turn some logs into firewood. I can file and set my blades but nails destroy teeth, it's not just a matter of being dull, they bend and break. The blade is never the same.

I skimmed through this post really quickly and maybe I missed it but another thing to keep in mind is the thickness of the boards.. I know some people like 4/4 (1") because it's easy to handle but you'll get a way better yield from 8 or 12/4.. Everything doesn't have to be perfectly vertical grain. I try to stay within 30 percent but know a lot of people consider 45 totally acceptable. Once it's sliced into sets you wont be able to tell and your yield will be way better.

Also make sure you figure out if there is a travel charge involved in that 55$ an hour and what kind of bf/hour he's willing guarentee. Some guys dont mill 200ft a day, others do ten times that much. I have a woodmizer bandmill that I can tow and it sounds a little low.. Blades, fuel, travel, set up and break down.. That stuff adds up, dont want him hitting you with any unexpected extras after the fact.

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The problem most people don't consider when planning on sawing their own log is that either they need a drying kiln or the Patience to wait a few years for the wood to dry. I believe it something like a year and inch for air drying???

You may want to find someone in your area that has a real nice, large capacity resaw bandsaw. It may take a lot of leg work, but if you can find one it is a real treasure. I am in southern Mi. amid several Amish sawmills and have a pal in Flat Rock, Mi. that can resaw down to .030". I have several large billets of eye-popping curly cherry that came off of my property. Rich(my pal with the resaw bandsaw) told me to seal the ends real good and remove the bark. Let it air dry in my barn for aaat least a year. He will then resaw it into back/side sets. He says to be ready to sticker it as soon as it is cut. Also, you should measure and map each log/billet to maximize yeild. I also agree that a metal detector should be used. My other pal that owns and operates Zehrs sawmill here in Reading Mi. will not take trees that come out of yards. He is Amish and does not have a metal detector. (no electricity). Good luck.

Well I have calculated that it could cost me C$550 for the sawyer, 2 blades and the price for the tree. But at a low value of C$5/bd.ft for the lumber I figure that only half of the tree would be worth about C$1400. I would pay $8 - $11/bd. ft. at the local wood specialty shop to buy walnut.

So I am thinking that I will wait until the tree is felled, then try to cut a 24” length or two from the middle and see what happens. I’ll try to split these (maybe cut them with the chainsaw) and save them for guitar parts of some sort. I have access to a large resaw at a local lumber yard where I could hire them to slice it up.

If there are no metal surprises and it looks good, then I will hire the sawyer to come and cut the rest, probably into 2” lumber for furniture or whatever, and sell enough of that to pay for the cost of the fiasco.  If it looks futile, then the bro-in-law will chop and burn it…

Sound like a good plan?