Our friendly neighborhood arborist stopped by recently. She looked at the Myrtle tree that randomly sprung up next to my shop and said yeah, that is gonna have to go (too close to the building). Yesterday she stopped by with her chain saw. Now there is a stump:
I spent all the next day slicing the trunk up into 1" slabs, planing them flat, and prepping them for air-drying. Looks like they are going to have some good flame and interesting grain textures. They quickly oxidize from white to gold, probably will end up a deep golden brown.
These will stay bundled up like this in the shed for many months, once the moisture content drops far enough I'll move 'em down to the humidity controlled basement for many more months. If it looks like they will be suitable for making guitars, I'll slice them up again to say 1/4" and let 'em dry for many more months...
If all goes well, I'll have some interesting boards to work with next year, or the year after, or the year after that (this is not a project for the impatient).
We also did some serious trimming of a Hazelnut tree. I took a number of 4"-6" diameter trunks from that and will also slice it up and air dry. This is pretty hard wood and it rings like a bell, even when sopping wet / freshly cut. As far as I can tell it has a pretty plain appearance and they are too small for guitar back/sides, but they might be great for internal structures (such as inner liners of double-sides). Maybe some ukes to give to the neighborhood kids.
