Basses from trees - version 2

[Jisch]

Sugar maple and hard maple are generally one and the same. Silver, Red, Norway, etc. are another matter.

Of course, that's also hoping that the common name is being applied to the same actual species (as far as I know, there's something like 70+ species with a common name of "ironwood" - the one here is also "blue beech" or "muscletree" but it seems to be whatever the hard/heavy wood of an area was got called that, in many cases.)

I've bought quite a bit of locally harvested maple it all looks the same, it's darker and typically doesn't have very straight grain compared to any hard maple I've bought on ebay or at Home Depot. I have always considered it "sugar maple", but I made that up. A friend works at a wood mill and he called it "soft maple" which I always considered sort of a generic name. Of course I don't know if this is the same kind of tree as those, maybe this is hard maple.

We'll revisit this thread in a year or so

 

[Joshua Pickenpaugh]

Cool bike!

 

[Jisch]

Cool bike!

Thanks, it's one of three in rotation, it got a lot of miles this winter, but I also ride in during non-snow months. I also have a Salsa Bucksaw (4" tires, full suspension) and a Cannondale Beast of the East (27.5+ hardtail).

 

[Jisch]

You can tell hard maple from soft right in the store with a scale, a ruler, and a calculator. Take a piece and measure and weigh it. Hard maple has a density of around 44 lb/cuft, soft maple is more like 34 lb/cuft.

Oak is pretty bad stuff. I've made a few oak fretboards, it is more trouble than it is worth. The open grain and uneven hardness make it difficult to finish, and it is very heavy.

Thanks for the info. This particular tree has a rotten core, I think that may be why it has so much figuring, but it means there is very little useable wood even if I just do a flat cut. In any event, I'm going to grab what I can and get it cut into boards as soon as my brother's wood mill is operational. The measuring and weighing method would only work if two boards were at the same moisture level, it would be difficult to get to the same point using one kiln dried board and one air dried board (mine will be air dried), but I'll post up anything I can figure out. Right now the log is literally draining sap onto my garage floor, that's how wet it is.

 

[bholder]

sap

Mmmmm, syrup!

 

[grinx]

goin' off the trails for some crazy grain......

 

[bholder]

goin' off the trails for some crazy grain......

Now that riff will be stuck in my head all day!

 

[D-Smith]

I've bought quite a bit of locally harvested maple it all looks the same, it's darker and typically doesn't have very straight grain compared to any hard maple I've bought on ebay or at Home Depot.

Chances are it's red maple and if it's darker might just be largely heartwood, which is more a a greyish tan color than white. Some trees are almost all heartwood. Most heartwood is fine to use, just not the greatest color.

As far as riding, I'm coming from RI, so we usually go a little later, like 10am, then hit the Plum Tomato in Colchester on the way home for pizza and a beer or two. Let's hook up for a ride some time in the spring when it warms up and dries out a bit!

 

[Jisch]

The inside of this is very definitely rotten, it's punky and soft, at least at the base of the tree where it broke off. I assume the rest is rotten all the way up, but I won't know for sure until it's cut and dried it could just be heartwood, but it's weird that the bottom is punky.

Yeah - let's ride!

 

[Jisch]

I went and grabbed more wood this morning, there's some spalting, but also a lot of rot. I brought it home then sealed the ends. I'm sure I'll have to seal them again once I get them cut into boards, but I don't want things splitting, I'm not sure how long it will be before I will be able to cut them up. It's really hard to see the figuring by looking the end grain, I pulled back some bark as I was cutting and it looks like the bottom of the tree has much more figuring than further up, so there may not be much in some of these logs. It's already going to be very little usable wood, but it's still a fun experiment. Unlike last time I'm going to try and plan the cuts so I get the most wood with the best figuring.

 

[Jisch]

I wanted to see what I'm really dealing with, so I ran it through the table saw using a piece of MDF as a guide screwed on to it and finishing it off with a plane. I'm on the "this is hard maple" train now, it looks just like what I buy as hard maple, not anything like the soft maple stuff I have bought off the local guy. The figuring looks great, but doesn't show up well in pictures.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

I can see enough in the pictures to agree, but it is difficult to take a picture that captures the full effect.

 

[Fender_Bender]

Can’t go wrong with free curly maple. I remember seeing a maple log in an empty lot that was probably close to 4’ in diameter and a good 12’ long that had obviously been there for long enough for most of the bark to have fallen off and I could see even just from the surface that it was super curly.

 

[davegardner0]

Wow that's some awesome looking wood. So cool to see those figure patterns just sitting there in nature - that shot of the smashed trunk is great!

 

[Jisch]

I got the logs milled today. I wish I had and am glad I don't have one of these machines. I would love to be able to cut trees, mill them then make furniture/instruments out of it. It's right up my alley for some reason.

This was a manual milling machine in that you pushed the bandsaw through the log, no crank or hydraulics. The guy let me cut a few boards, it was amazingly smooth and easy, it looks like he's pushing hard here, but he's really just watching the blade, it moves with almost no effort. The mill is obviously made for much larger logs, so getting these small things in there was a challenge.

The wood looks pretty good, but honestly it's hard to see the figuring under the saw marks, the middle of some of the logs was punky, so for some of these I'll be lucky to get a few neck stringers. Some nice ambrosia in this one:

Overall more than I thought I would get, but as mentioned there's some rot in the middle and because the small diameter, the curvature of the log means there's not much that's full dimension. I guess this is a pretty good haul of tiger maple for $40 (what I paid the guy to do the milling). I had it all cut 4/4, I figure that will give me good options once it's dry. I'll know more about how much is too punky after it's dried out - a year from now:

 

[Jisch]

Yet another zombie resurrection.

I grabbed the splintered bottom of the tree a while back, today I cut it up to see what I could get out of it. I didn't measure it before cutting, but I would guess it was 4.5' long 8" in diameter (though this was not even half a log). After processing I got a single board that's about 3'x2.5"x4" and it's got some cracks in it. Honestly this will probably end up in a cutting board rather than a bass, but it is nice looking wood!

 

[Jisch]

I guess this is the kind of thread that will get semi-regular updates.

I'm in between instruments and looking for stuff to do, so today I grabbed one of the bigger cuts from this adventure and figured I'd see what I could get out of it. This piece had a lot of punky rot in the middle so I was cutting around that. It's also the last cut, so it was round with bark on it. Picking it up it was a lot lighter than it was when I stacked it. Having a punky middle surely helps in the drying process.

I didn't take a "before" pic of the rough cut, but I think it's the fifth one down in the stack above.

After cutting it up I got a decent amount of usable wood. I guess "usable" is relative, as I'd have to be pretty careful about the grain to use it in a neck, but I'm sure I'll find a way to use it. This section of tree has almost no figuring in it, but it does have some cool grain patterns and coloring. I'll work my way through the rest of the wood over the next week and post pics up of what I end up with and if there are any pieces with great figuring.