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Very early stage


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Do you think this might become a body or two during the next decade? There's some spalting to be seen, hopefully it's not too rotten! There's a couple of the same diameter, though, so a few rough planks will be sawn during the summer.

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1 hour ago, 10pizza said:

How are you going to saw that piece into planks?

Hopefully not with the chainsaw like I did with the poplar! A customer told that he's got a big bandsaw, I hope he's still willing to saw my wood.

If not, I guess I'd better reshape the teeth of the chain to 0-5 deg. Or even nip off two of every three teeth off the chain which I've heard would cut better along the grain. The latter can't be confirmed by Google so I guess the former would be the safer option.

@curtisa, do you think you should mention that to your shrink? 🤔

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9 hours ago, curtisa said:

Is it just me or does that tree trunk look like a pair of legs and a butt? 🤪

you shouldn't have written down this, now I can't see anything else in it! 😍

 

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12 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

do you think you should mention that to your shrink?

Only if he wants to lock me up, which he can't do anyway 'cause we're all already locked up.

Anyway, didn't anybody tell you? I'm a teapot! :hyper

Nurse! Nurse! He's at it again!

 

4 hours ago, 10pizza said:

you shouldn't have written down this, now I can't see anything else in it!

Hmmmm...maybe it's not just me after all...

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6 hours ago, MiKro said:

Not sure what that wood is, but the color of it being cut fresh would indicate bois'darc in Texas and that stuff is the devil to cut with anything. The mineral content makes sparks fly with a chain saw. LOL

Oh, I should have mentioned it! It's alder (Alnus incana) and having cut several thousand trunks into 35 cm blocks I can tell that it's very nice to cut - unlike goat willow (Salix caprea) which eats the chain alive and keeps sparkling even in the oven. It's noticably softer than birch but denser than aspen (Populus tremula), has a uniform grain which makes it easy to carve and rots easily which makes finding thick enough guitar body wood a bit challenging. The roasted 18x4 cm planks I've built a couple guitars of have all been slab sawn telling that the trunks haven't been too thick to start with.

Because of its softness it's often looked down on as crapwood, yet it has many positive features: it burns with a clean flame without sooting the chimney flue, it gives a nice gentle flavour for smoking and it isn't poisonous or add a bitter taste as spoons or pails.

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I don't have the tools for splitting it. My axes are very good for chopping firewood but a trunk with twisted grain like that might be too much. After having seen how straight the poplar was that could have been doable with my axes and wedges, though.

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7 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

how long does it need seasoning?

I had the poplar in my shed for some five years, then I cut the rough planks into bookmatched boards which I piled in the balcony of the class, indoors that is, and pretty warm up at 4 metres as heat goes up and it's normal room temperature on the floor level.

@curtisa I'm planning to apply some paint at the ends to prevent checking. The harder trunk already has small cracks at the end so I'd better hurry with that.

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