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No health problem, but turning 74 last night has me facing up to the fact that I won’t have time to use the majority of tone wood I’ve acquired over the years.

My biggest problem is a number of billets of black walnut remaining from what I thought would be my brilliant part time retirement gig - supplying what I felt was exceptional black walnut to tonewood dealers. Unfortunately, the key to my plan, a friend who was the head sawyer of a local commercial mill at the time processing 1.5 million board feet of walnut a year, retired before I did. The plan was...

While sawing logs, if he encountered a log with: exceptional flame (only 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 walnut trees exhibit commercially valuable figure, uniformly high flame in clear, not crotch, walnut is more rare), wide enough for backs or sides (for backs, this meant a log 22-24 inches diameter at breast height or DBH, Less than 1% of all black walnut growing-stock trees in the United States are larger than 17 inches DBH), with defect clear portions long enough for back or side billets, (walnut grading is more relaxed than other species due to its high value and diminishing availability. An FAS (First and Seconds) board only needs to be 67% clear of defects, whereas most other species require 83.3%, increasing the waste loss in making usable billets from boards), he would pull the 2 center cuts (just the quartersawn) of the log, and set them aside to prevent undergoing the usual subsequent steaming (to drive pigment into the sapwood, increasing yield), and kiln drying that essentially all commercial walnut undergoes.

After a few months, when 2-4 boards accumulated, he would call, and I bought from these. In exchange for my getting the first pick of the cream-off-the-top, from 1.5 million board feet of walnut, the sawyer got the moral high ground of this becoming tone wood instead of veneer or gunstocks, and forest fairies, in gratitude, left a bottle of Bruichladdich in his pickup.

After billets were cut, planed square, pith wood removed, and the ends dipped in hot parrafin, the billets were stickered to dry and season.
Billets have been stored stickered in my attic: Temp range = -15 to +110, Humidity range = 15% - 95%. After 20 years, one has ~ a 1 inch end check and there has been little to no warpage ,cupping, etc.


I’ve no interest in learning to deal with E-bay, Etsy etc. My wife’s severe allergy to wood dust prevents my processing them into back and side sets.

I've only ever used my own wood for guitars, so don't have experience dealing with tone wood dealers.
Do any of you have suggestions as to tone wood suppliers who might have interest in purchasing these billets, an idea of their expected yield of back and sides per inch thickness of billet, or their % markup from billet to sale of back and side sets to have an idea of what to value the billets at?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice


Attached is a Size 1 I built from a waste cut off of this wood to give an idea of the figure I'm talking about.

First off - that is one GLORIOUS piece of walnut. Super nice looking guitar, too. I don't have a solution for you, but I bet one of our OLF'rs will have a good idea - maybe two.

Happy New Year!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Rn, I echo what Chris said - WOW! What a beauty!
About the stash- have you contacted Allied, Exotic, Stew Mac etc and see if they are interested?
Glen

You might also contact Peter Cefalu of RC Tonewoods.

First of all, thank you for taking the effort to separate out and store those boards for luthier use!

I'll echo what the others have said- check with our usual tonewood suppliers. Two more are Aaron Hix (east coast) and Hibdon Hardwood (St. Louis, MO).

What size are the billets?
How many are there?

Wow that's absolutely stunning material, I assume it's American black walnut? You might want to contact Adam Buchwald who in addition to being a builder himself (circle strings guitars) and co owner of Iris guitars also runs and owns Allied lutherie in Vermont. They have a massive horizontal bandsaw and process much of the material they offer for sale.

In what state are you located? Maybe I missed it.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Thanks for the suggestions so far you guys, I really appreciate any any advice.
I'll try contacting some of your suggested dealers.
This sure would be easier if there were tonewood dealers here in Omaha... anyone passing through is welcome to stop by.

Randall Roberts

Give Mike at Elitetonewoods.com a call. A great guy to work with

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You might give Paxton Hardwoods in KC a call. It’s a long shot but I bought some Ziricote sets from them many years ago.