Official Luthiers Forum!

For those in the path of Hurrican Sandy, I am sure there will be lots of local wood around for making backs and sides for guitars. While watching the huge clean up effort on the TV today, I saw and interview with a sawyer who was removing a historic oak tree in New York State to save it from the firewood pile or the dump. I am not suggesting that anyone hurry down and scarf up wood during this time when people in the path of the hurricane is waiting for electricity, heat, water, food, shelter, etc., but when people get back on their feet, I would bet that there will be a lot of old and historic trees that will be available for lumber.

Maybe a guitar could be made from a downed Sandy tree and the proceeds of its sale could be given to the Red Cross or some other disaster relief groups for future disasters that will hit our country. Just a thought.

I have two children and a sister in law who live in New Jersey. Two now have electrcitiy, but it may be sometime for the third to get it back. They live off the coast, but new Point Pleasant Beach and Tom's River. They are safe, and no damage to their home. What a blessing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1987

Our UK event from 1987. There is still Guitar set wood available from that event, some 25 years later.
Then there is natural damage to trees caused by disease/fungal damage. It appears that we are about to have a severe infection of out Ash trees.
May as well put good use to the resource. Why not?

It would take a lot of work to make it worthwhile, but the right approach could end up helping both sides. Two guys here in St. Louis started an urban log recycling business. They offer free haul off for tree trunks that need to be removed (lots of city parks and golf courses) and take them to the sawmill to become shipping palates and railroad ties. They pretty much break even doing that; but when they come across lumber worthy logs, they mill and kiln them for sale. This makes it just barely worth their effort, but it is cool to build with locally sourced woods that would have normally been landfill, wood chips or firewood.
Here is an excerpt from their blog after a tornado came through last year:
“I doubt any municipality is really prepared for the scale of damage they are now dealing with. Certainly the smaller ones with a couple guys that cut grass all summer are not. So when Joe showed up on the street full of work trucks and sees two guys standing around a log and another downed tree, he asked if he could help. He made short work of the log, loading it in minutes. The crane is an awesome and fun power tool. ‘What about that other one?’ Joe asks. ‘Well, maybe you could help,’ came the reply. ‘do you have a saw?’
Does Joe have a saw? HA! That is like asking a gunfighter if he carries bullets. So Joe says nothing, calmly opens the tool box on the truck, pulls out the Stihl 260, sets it down, pulls out the Stihl 460, sets it down, reaches in and pulls out the Stihl 660 with 36 inch bar, fires it up, cuts off the rootball, removes the top and any branches and tries not to notice the reverent gaze and slack jaws on the others. “Yeah, it looks like you can help us.” Two business cards and a short speech later and we are getting calls from another group glad they do not have to chunk up perfectly good logs with dinky Homelite saws.”

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Yep, I think ash is a good idea. Well, I sure hope so, since that is what I'm making my first out of! i can say the stuff really bends well, and is easy to work for backs and sides. I'm also making the neck out of it, and carving the neck ain't so fun...

On another note, I have a bunch of dogwood that came from trees taken down by tornadoes that came through Birmingham a couple of years ago. Are there any uses in guitars for this wood?

_________________
Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

There's a LOT of very large sprce trees down here in Westchester County, NY. Our growing cycles are longer than those in the normal ranges where it's harvested, so it might not be dense enough, but I have seen some large trunks with pretty dense growth rings. I'm going to try and save a few cross-sections to see if I can harvest some tops.