verhoevenc Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 Ok, so my avocado tree came down in the hurricane. Anyone know anything about it's wood in relation to instruments??? Should I bother keeping any? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnewman Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 I the latest issue of American Woodturner there's an article about turning a 10" salad bowl from a wet log in 24 hours - he microwaved it for an hour or two to dry it then turned it then let it dry in a warm oven. He settled on avocado as the best wood for it because "when a log of it is cut in half, it does not crack for some time... it has a low density, a fine cell size, turns easily, and has moderate to high shrinkage." I can't tell you anything about it as a tonewood, but it's BEAUTIFUL, at least as far as my taste in woods goes. To me it kind of looks like a warmer maple, but without the dark lines between dark/light grain sections. It has a very nice lustre, as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 It has a very nice lustre, as well. Wonderful! How many lustrums does it take to dry thoroughly tho? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdw3332 Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 I understand it is widely used for guacomole guitars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnewman Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 It has a very nice lustre, as well. Wonderful! How many lustrums does it take to dry thoroughly tho? ← Heh, according to the article, 70 minutes broken up over two hours at medium or medium low in the microwave before turning, and 8 hours in the oven at 150 after turning. I'll leave the conversion to lustrums as an excercise for the student . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiggz Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 (edited) dunno much about the wood, but if ya wanna grow another tree, make sure u beat up the seed before u plant it, (get ur dog to chew on it for a while) cos otherwise it wont grow. Edited November 3, 2005 by where's the beef??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 let me give you warning about drying wood in the microwave..i've done it for years to get green wood ready for turning only the method i learned was 5 min on 50% power and then let cool..do that several times and it does dry out the wood. i did it the other day trying to dry out a small piece of older cedar that was wet from rain and on the third cycle i forgot to set it to 50% and set the piece of wood on fire. i was running something through the planner at the time and looked over and thought that i'd set the microwave on fire..lots of smoke. be careful with microwaves..they're evil. as to your tree..how large was it? if it was big enough to make a guitar body you're going to need to slab it out and let it cure for quite a while before it's ready to do anything with..there have been several threads here about drying wood so you might do a little search and find out more about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted November 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 Yeah.... I'm going against the idea... I have NO idea where I could go around here to get them to make slabs out of it, and I looked and most of the trunk's pieces are cracked already from sitting on the curb in the sun waiting for the tree cleanup people. So yeah... nm Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 bummer..hate to see good wood go to waste.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verhoevenc Posted November 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 the main reason I said no is cause I went out and looked at the wood before they took it away today and most of it had cracked since it's been in the sun. And for alot of the bigger pieces for some reasons the centers had rotted out?? Weird, but oh well. Regardless, my parents live in malaysia and he's sending a shipment to the US soon.... so I'm gunna hopefully get some cheap rosewood and mahogany, etc. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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