The Emory Road Sugar Maple
This dear friend had been in our yard when we moved into our house in 1997. It was a beautiful big sugar maple that provided fantastic autumn colors and cooling summer shade. Our daughter and the neighborhood kids would play in the leaves I would rake up in October and November.
The tree took a turn for the worse and died in 2015. I felt sad about losing it, but contacted the county to come assess and they decided to take it down. When they came to haul it off, I was inspired to ask if I could keep the trunk for possible guitar wood. That way I could still have a part of it around and maybe do something nice with the wood. My neighbors were kind enough to help me ( meaning, I held the trunk while he cut it ) cut the trunk into quarters.
Quartered: These were heavy pieces. It took two of us to move them piece by piece on a hand truck to my backyard.
Cut for resawing: The wood has been cut into slabs. Next they need to be cut into pieces that could be potential backs, sides, and necks.
Backs/ Sides/Necks: The slabs have been cut into guitar wood with the end grains sealed. The wood needs to dry and sealing the end grains helps prevent cracking while the wood is drying.
Stickered and drying: The wood must dry for roughly one inch thickness per year.
Becoming a guitar: This is the first guitar from the maple tree. It is an LJ cutaway. I was thrilled with the figure in so much of the pieces.