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Scored a sweet chunk of black walnut today! Now, if I only had a saw that I could cut it up with...

Wants my SUV!

Very nice!

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

Couple of nice QS sections there! How wide, Ed?

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

18 x 66 x 1 3/4. So, sadly only big enough for small guitars, and in reality probably only 6 sets, if it's nice on the inside.

Still, it's the only time I've ever seen usable walnut in the wild. For some reason all the walnut around here is flatsawn...

We'll see what happens. I'll cut 9" back blocks, but it'll be pretty flatsawn towards the edges. Once they're panels I'll judge them. I've definitely used wood that changes from QS to rift to flat.

Resawing is gonna be a whole new game...

It looks like it would be good for matched backs and sides, using the perfectly quartered slices for the backs, and then cutting off the sapwood and rift/flat part of the others for the sides. 66" is perfect length too. Slice it at full length, and cut into two 33" lengths for the sides, and three 22" lengths for backs. Probably won't have an equal number of backs and sides, but great quality wood on all of them and not too much waste.

Oh, but I like sapwood in the sides!

Two words for you: Knew. Concepts.

Ha! A half hour a day and eventually it would be done. I was leaning more towards a new bandsaw...

Warm up the apprentice -

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I scored a real nice chunk like that years ago, cut right across the pith from bark to bark and you have some perfect quarter sawn boards. I had a local hardwood dealer cut them up on a band saw for me. That was when I lived outside Washington DC and had options.

Ed sounds like you have a plan. To bad your in Canada or I would gladly cut it up for you. 30 min work.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

That's a nice find, Ed. I'm surprised to see it with the bark still on it. I'd get that off. Sapwood is your call. Sometimes I like it.
I see the center pith near the edge in your second photo. If that runs through from end to end, I think it would be a good idea to saw along that line and remove it. That'll relieve some stress. You can see that the board has begun to go out of flatness right above the pith. If the pith is close to one side all the way through, you might be able to get a couple of full width slices above it, but I don't think they'll stay flat. All that said, it's a nice chunk of my favorite wood.

I love sapwood, especially on backs. We'll see about leaving it in the sides or not.

It came from the live edge lumber section at Windsor, hence the bark.

Yes, the pith runs end to end.

I'm thinking I should get 6-8 sets of Parlour/00 sets if I'm very lucky. We'll see what out looks like inside, I don't know how to judge that yet. Somehow an awful lot of knots appeared on it between the lumberyard and the shop:)

Thanks Bob! Canada is great in some ways, but we have much more limited access to good woods. Even in Vancouver, a port city and one of western Canada's largest cities (voted again as the second least affordable city on earth to live in yay!), almost all of the potential guitar making species are complete bunk. Sometime I go to the lumber yards and think, what can anyone even do with this knotty twisted piece of firewood?

Well, we have a lot of maple I guess...

Ed I bought wood in Burlington. Some nice imported woods. Also some very nice maple. What I meant by too bad your in Canada" was the cost of shipping it to me.

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Would that be Exotic Woods, Bob? Very wide selection, and a great staff there. I'm planning a little spending trip there in the near future!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

ha yeah lots of Sitka & Cedar up here but finding something else is a pain.. You beat me to Windsor I guess.. I was looking for Walnut for an Archtop back 7 sides....

dang



Kerry

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My Website http://klw-strings.com
My Luthier's Blog...http://klwstrings.blogspot.com

Yes Alex

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Nice piece for sure... good find.

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High Mountain Tonewood Company
Bruce Andrews
Terrace, BC, Canada
http://www.highmountaintonewood.com

Do you still make it out to Chilliwack, Ed? We used to custom-cut all the time, and if they have the man-power on the day you make your appointment, they may be able to cut it while you wait. I did that a number of times. Made me a little jumpy, occasionally, when the customer would be *right there* breathing down my neck and measuring my slices with a dial caliper (I am not joking), but I was able to make him happy, so all ended well. Feel free to give 'em a call and see what their schedule is.

I'm waiting til I can haul away a bandsaw from there. I still get lots of things from them, but I figure this plank will make a nice guinea pig. I'm sure it'll keep in this form nicely enough until the day comes...