Wood harvesting - no wonder it's expensive.

This winter I was alerted that the USFS had felled a tall spruce tree that had been standing dead for quite a while above a local campground. They'd cut it into four foot rounds to move it away from the trail, and said I could have what I could get out. It has been very difficult to find decent boards for one piece electric solid bodies, at any price. No sap was seeping from the cuts, so I figured to give it a try.

It was quite a workout with a sledge and wedges, splitting one-eighth wedges and carrying the first two a couple hundred yards. Then we got a decent snowstorm that worked for sledding them out and I got a few nice pieces.

This weekend I took a saw and chainsaw to one about half way through then split it the rest of the way. I mounted it on a wide board and sent it through a planer and the result looks like it will be prefect.

Seeing how much work it took, I can see why they slice it thin and sell it for acoustics instead of this craziness.



-Vinnie in Juneau

Sounds like a cool adventure (except for having to do it in the snow). I've done the same thing with koa logs. It's a lot of sweat and strain if you don't have the big tools to do it properly. Because of this I've learned that most ready-to-go instrument sets are a bargain. Still, there's no better feeling than building an instrument from log to finished product.

I was reading an old Foxfire (they have grouped the articles from this old gem of a publication by subject, and they are available as ebooks now! pretty sweet) about "mountain instruments"... One builder recalled going into the woods with his father to hunt for timber. He said his dad chose the trees by their look and also by sounding - hitting them broadside with an axe or hammer - to determine the nature of the lumber.

Chuck, was your tree already felled? If not, how did you select it?

I read those Foxfire books back in the 70s. They've stuck with me. Through them I learned to split shakes for a cabin in the woods I was building.

Occasionally I'll get a call from a sawyer who tells me he's just got ahold of some logs and I am offered them. It helps to bring along a hatchet to remove bark in various areas to get an idea of what you're looking at. I look for color, curl and rot. If the tree has been lying on the forest floor for a while you really take your chances with rot (but sometimes has the best color). It's unusual with koa if I can use 50% of the log for ukes. I'm pretty picky so the yield is more like 25% of the total board footage. Every step of milling exposes new heart aches. The excess koa that's not rotted or otherwise defective goes to other projects or is traded to other woodworkers. I use someone else's mill so for a small time builder like me it's not really worth it. Koa that I buy for $20 a board feet can easily cost me $100 bf or more by the time I'm done. Not to mention all the sweat labor and the years you have to wait to go from log to sets. Ready made sets are a bargain but you can't beat the experience of doing it all yourself.

Moore Bettah Ukuleles said:

I read those Foxfire books back in the 70s. They've stuck with me. Through them I learned to split shakes for a cabin in the woods I was building.

Occasionally I'll get a call from a sawyer who tells me he's just got ahold of some logs and I am offered them. It helps to bring along a hatchet to remove bark in various areas to get an idea of what you're looking at. I look for color, curl and rot. If the tree has been lying on the forest floor for a while you really take your chances with rot (but sometimes has the best color). It's unusual with koa if I can use 50% of the log for ukes. I'm pretty picky so the yield is more like 25% of the total board footage. Every step of milling exposes new heart aches. The excess koa that's not rotted or otherwise defective goes to other projects or is traded to other woodworkers. I use someone else's mill so for a small time builder like me it's not really worth it. Koa that I buy for $20 a board feet can easily cost me $100 bf or more by the time I'm done. Not to mention all the sweat labor and the years you have to wait to go from log to sets. Ready made sets are a bargain but you can't beat the experience of doing it all yourself.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I have no intention of trying to go from tree to uke on my own, just found this thread to be very interesting. Thanks.

Been there and done that, though no particularly worthy trees for Ukes in my area. The Asian beattles are killing everything out here, and there are massive stands of red spruce in some areas, though I don't think they will let them be harvested.

single head chainsaw mill, that is a lot of work! Only if I was in the back country if everything had to be moved by hand, or, if absolute minimum impact was necessary.

One of my friends has a Lucas mill that he has loaned to me a couple of times to saw about 8,000 bf of Fir and Larch from my property. It took about 2 weeks to skid, mill, stack, and clean up. The time selecting and felling the trees, and making low impact paths for my Toyota 4x4 equipped with chains, a chain, and tongs, to skid them with, took another 2 weeks or more (mostly peaceful time walking in the forest) The largest was a Larch that was 38" at the butt. Felling that tree put a whole new perspective on what it means to go down to Home Depot to buy wood... This is hard, heavy work.. kinda fun though.

It is hard work, and I am getting past it now that I am in my fifties. On the other hand, there are few activities with the immediate dollar-not-spent return for me, in the shop. I can't recall how much wood we got, but it was a lot, at least 500 bft. The reason we did it was because the beech we are harvesting is simply unavailable, and I am after stock for planes and workbenches. Seems to be a common item in Europe, but in Canada and the US it is not a commercial wood. Even the folks using it commercially had trouble getting supply. Chris Schwartz of endless workbench books fame, couldn't find a medium piece. But it took me less than a week from a big city, to locate a source, and I paid just 10 cents a bft.

I prefer to cut fat, dry then resaw on the bandsaw as specific needs become clear. The cool thing is it is fast to cut fat with a chainsaw mill compared to making thin boards with many cuts. It is easier to resaw fat pieces for the most part since they are more stable. Fat and wide wood is worth more. The only fly in the ointment is if there is a great deal of loss during the drying. This has not been my experience, and the beech surprised me in drying very quickly due to it's particular pore structure, which I guess is part of why it is preferred for planes and benches. It air dried as fast as 4 inches a year. The othere woods I have cut have all yielded well, but taken a longer time to dry, more in line with the inch per year benchmark.

If milling has taught me one thing it is to happily pay for the quality of wood the modern maker is required to deliver. I would mill structural lumber for shop furniture, tools, and certain elements of furniture, but I never see wood that would be acceptable for Ukes or Guitars. OK, if you want a straight grained one piece maple neck, maybe, or burl for a head veneer, but I don't see the stuff I can buy relatively cheaply dried and bookmatched available in my woods.