Blackwood milling

[curly]

I put this whopping great Blackwood across the mill today , creatively named P10 . I'm Pete and this was the 10 th tree I cut this summer past ( got to 16) .
If only they were all this good , huge , round full of colour and figure . A proper metre diameter and 1900 long in the first Log , 2700 in the second . Then the stump which run out to master fiddle .
Happy days , in one day i milled a full cubic metre of quarter sawn musical flitches, with some matched boards up to 480 wide on the quarter for cello and double bass backs . As you can see its full op ropey cross washed colour .
No particular reason to share this excepting that I'm chuffed and figured you lot might be interested . Missus certainly wasn't . That's nice dear ......
I'm a complete dumbass at uploading photos , might take a couple of goes
Pete
Curly Timbers

[Trevor Gore]

Nice, Pete. I've not seen anything like that before.

[colin north]

A thing of beauty and a joy to behold!!

[Mark McLean]

Thanks for sharing that. It is going to make some beautiful instruments some day.

[Gazm]

Mother nature at her best!!, beautiful colours Pete,will make many Ukulele top, back & side sets

How long must we salivate before these are air dried?
In anticipation!

[Steve.Toscano]

Looks amazing.
Put me down for a few sets when it's ready

[Hank]

Love your work!!

[ckngumbo]

That stuff is incredible!

[rocket]

Nice looking stuff Pete, this billet comes from the same region, not ready to use it yet but will yield two archies when I'm ready.
Cheers

Rod

[curly]

Thanks for the feedback ,
I tend to run Blackwood sawn to 50 or 60 mm on a one year turnaround . It's probably the easiest timber to dry that I deal with , it readily lets its core moisture go without adverse moisture gradients . The year tends to be 9 or 10 months air dry with the remainder in a dehumidifier dry box which is just ambient temperature dried air moved around with fans .
That block is beautiful Rod , that Murray is pretty good !!
I'll fish out some other photos to add to the thread . I did a completely bonkers fiddle Blackwood a couple of months back but don't know if I took photos ...
Pete
Curly timbers

[hillbillybass]

Beautiful figure Pete! I love Blackwood! Thanks again for the double bass ribs you cut for me. I'll come and see you again for wood for the back of my double bass once I've saved enough money.

[Dave M]

Pete I see you have the boards stacked vertically. Is that the way you dry them rather than in the more traditional stickered stack?

[stopper]

A log that size will cut some nice sets Pete. I broke this one down last weekend. Nice fb but only 700mm diameter so not as much room to manoeuvre.
Regards
Steve

[curly]

Geez Steve , I'd be really happy with that as a start , that much figure showing at the end is really promising . I find 600 is about the cutoff for much recovery . Sometimes you might squeeze sets out of smaller logs by allowing roll in the lower bout but you never get much and the faults are right on you . That's how it is with satin box , they're just not a big tree . I find big is definitely better with Blackwood , makes the quarter blocks wider .700 is pretty good . Worst is flutes or flowery ends , they roll of quarter so quick !
And Dave I flat sticker same as everyone , just popped them on edge to try to photo without the bloody laser light in the shed roof reflecting .
As an aside I have given away resawing Blackwood wet as much as possible as some sort of volatile heart extractive goes straight through a sundstrom organic vapours mask and makes me wheeze . Not the dust as such , it's a vapour . Doesn't do it on the mill as its got a water spray on the blade . Worst is trimming wet stuff on the panel saw . Poison
The photos of a workmate with another whopper . The fork that looks tiny is a 3.5 ton machine
Pete
Curly timbers

[demonx]

Looks like you've got some work ahead of you and some nice stuff to look forward to!