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Hey guys,

We had a bad storm last night and a really big chestnut oak came down in my back yard. I've never cut up a tree for wood before, but would like to do that with this one. Any advise on how to do this? What size billets would you recommend me cutting, how to dry, etc. I would appreciate all advice. I'm interested in making acoustic guitars of all sizes, but probably mostly parlors, 0, and 00's. thanks

Sean

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Cut it into rounds of 40 inches in length, then split those rounds by hand into thin wedges to eliminate run out and get fully vertical grain in your thinner pieces. Let the wedges dry out, 1 year per inch seems to be the rule, and slice it up into backs and sides.

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To add to Tony's advice, get some sealer such as paraffin or latex paint on the end grain ASAP and split the rounds ASAP. Free wood is such a gift. A bit of work but worth it.
Tom

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I like using Anchor Seal to seal end grain. http://www.amazon.com/Anchorseal-Green- ... 45-5911806

Don't forget to get the bark off asap. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

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

This may be skewing off topic, but I stashed some small Pecan logs in my garage but did not saw them. I noticed they have borers in them. This week I noticed my dried lumber has them now. I have not found a solution to the problem on the web. I guess I'll spread my lumber out on the driveway and spray it with insecticide. Be aware of insects on your logs.

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Curious, in which direction is that measured? 1 year per inch of thickness? Length?

Thickness....................................length if your not in a hurry
Tom

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Get some Timbor (Boric Acid), mix it in a garden sprayer and thoroughly soak both sides of each billet or board. This will take care of most boring insects. You will not be able to air dry Oak outside in the Atlanta area much below 12% moisture content. It will need to be brought inside a climate controlled area, stack and sticker and plan on another 6-12 months to get it down to a stable ~6-7%. Don't plan on using any of the limbs for wood that needs to be stable. Best plan is to use the limbs for firewood.

Good luck

Well, if you cut them 40 inches long, and the width is half the diameter of the tree, then the last dimension would be the thickness.

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PMoMC

Sean,

Living in Virginia I probably don't have quite the humidity problem that you do in Atlanta but I've found a large fan blowing on stacked and stickered wood helps out. I use a large barn fan that is generally used to circulate air through horse stables. Make sure that you're getting good air flow. Weighting the top of your stack might be helpful also, but I'm not sure. I've always had my wood cut quickly into boards, so I don't know if the weighting would be as beneficial for billets/wedges but helps out with boards.

Are you milling into guitar sets with a bandsaw, or are you going to pursue another option?

Steve

And re-stack and re-sticker (in slightly different places) periodically. Swap out the lower part of the stack for the higher part. I don't pretend to be an expert on drying green wood, but I think this should be done monthly or thereabouts for half a year or so. Then less frequently after that. If you don't, you might get some mold growing under your stickers. It has happened to others, and it has been reported on this forum. The way I see it, if you're going to all this trouble, only a little more trouble will help to ensure success.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I was mistaken, chestnut oak is white oak, but we had to cut a red oak down also, so I will have a little of both white and red oak for guitars in the future. Appreciate the advise. I'll be splitting some wood tomorrow!

You can see some shots of the tree action and my recent build on Instagram #bucketguitars

Sean

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instagram.com/bucketguitars/

Just to put a bug in your ear.....

ONE tree can yield several HUNDRED board feet of lumber... and it takes around TWO board feet of lumber to make a back and sides set.... What do you plan to do with the other 298 board feet of Oak?

Next - Oak is incredibly easy to bend for sides and back... so you don't *Really* need to make sure you split it with the grain... More important is to maximize Quartersawn figure for that section of wood...

and you really want 1 board that's about just right for Guitar wood... and then the rest of it for Furniture/house projects and the like....

After resawing some wood myself.... Here's what I would do....

Call up a couple local sawyers... Explain what you want (Quartersaw the whole thing).. Feel them out if they understand how to cut Oak to maximize Quartersawn figure....

Tell him that you want ONE center cut board 8 or 10 feet long - through and through to straddle the pith 1" on each side... and include the pith - about 2" thick, then rip that one right down the center of the heart.... and be sure he cuts 100% of the bark off...

Then.. Quartersaw the whole rest of the tree... Do 8 or 10 foot lengths - as they are handy Lumber Project lengths.... Have him do a mix of 4/4 and 8/4 lumber...

I would recommend having it kiln dried by someone who knows how to deal with Oak... This will kill off any bugs in it....

You can decide on whether or not to kiln dry your ONE super-duper center cut guitar slice... I have built guitars out of Kiln dried QS Oak.. and it's not an issue....

Thanks

I have never felt the need to re-sticker or re-stack my wood, but I do make it a point to use dry stickers. Laying two pieces of green wood together will almost guarantee mold stains.
With hardwoods, my process is to cut the wood from split billets into boards 1" to 2" thick, then air-dry it for at least a year before resawing it thinner. If you saw green hardwoods into thin sheets, you are likely to end up with potato chips.
Although kiln drying will kill bugs, my plan is to remove the bark as soon as possible, particularly if the wood is processed in the summer. This eliminates most boring insects. After the bark is removed, it is advisable to saw or split the wood to 2" thick or less ASAP, to reduce splitting on the outside edges.

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John

If you don't want/need all of the lumber most sawyers will cut lumber on "shares" where a certain percentage of the lumber will go to the sawyer as payment for processing the lumber. Could save you some money and allow you to still have plenty of boards.

In my experience, white oaks tend to have more medullary ray figure than reds. Most whites I've dealt with tend to be a bit heavier/denser than reds also.

Be careful about letting any metal come into contact for any length of time with oak while there's available moisture. The tannins in the oak will react with the moisture and iron in the metal blackening the wood. Learned this lesson the hard way. Doesn't usually go very deep but needs to be sanded/scraped/planed off

I've done a couple of trees worth of wood. Sop far the advice has been good.

Tangential shrinkage tends to be much greater than radial: the circumference of the tree tends to get small faster than the diameter. That's why wood checks as it dries, and also why flat cut boards cup. Minimizing the the curvature of annual ring lines in the wood minimizes the degree of cupping and honeycomb checking. I'd split the rounds down so that each wedge is no more than 2"-4" on the wide edge.

Painting the ends is done to get the moisture loss the same on all surfaces. Oak normally looses moisture fast from the end grain, which also contributes to end checks: the end of the billet get small faster than the middle, and cracks. You don't need to prevent moisture loss from the ends, just get it to be about the same as the side grain. A couple of coats of cheap interior latex will do it.

Stack the wood in the open but out of full sun. Cross stack the splits (one layer N-S, the next E-W) to minimize contact area and maximize air flow. Cover the top of the pile to keep out rain, but leave the sides open for air flow. You'll get to about 90% of the equilibrium moisture for the conditions in around 6-8 weeks. The faster you dry the wood (within reason) the less drying degrade you'll have. Re-stacking gives you a chance to look for mildew and other problems.

When my sisters logged the hill out back for wood to build their house, I helped the carpenter resaw some of the oak. We had 27" diameter logs tat were clear for 12 feet, which was about all the 'grunt' we had for getting them onto the saw. There were some really nice quartered planks, and I asked them to please save me a couple. They cut it all up for flooring, and had a lot left over. *sigh* I should have filched one right off.....

I love oak for guitars and have harvested a lot of it from a really old barn. I think it's pretty resistant to pests because none of this stuff was infested even with moss growing on it. That said one sure fire way (pun intended) to get rid of them is to kiln dry. I'd be weary of bringing them into a shop still. Mine are stored outside under shelter.