blackwood log

[matthew]

A friend has a blackwood log harvested from his property near Camden. Approx 8ft long and about 14" across.

Where/who could one get this rough sawn for drying in Sydney area?

[blackalex1952]

I'm not in Sydney but felt like posting this info for anyone who has a similar log to dry. The info was published in the book "Understanding Wood" by Bruce Hoadley. Basically, while one is searching for a resaw facility, the wood is drying somewhat anyway. So for those on this forum who don't know this, in the meantime, split the log using wedges which will follow and reveal the runout in the timber in the log, or chainsaw using a chalk string line marks and either way, remove the heartwood which will give two wedges of timber along the length of the log. Having removed the heartwood, where most of the tension is, paint the ends of the two 'halves' with oil paint then stack the wedges, in this case 8ft long, so that they can dry slowly at the ambient relative humidity under cover. Because the heartwood has been removed, the wedges will begin to dry without the tension produced by the heartwood and will shrink but the wood will not split as much because the wedge will dry and take on a more 'wedged' shape along the grain, ie the length of the log..I have timber ready for resawing here which I cut down or salvaged in the 1970's.
The other comment I have is that a 14 inch wide log which has the heartwood removed, represents two quartersawn halves of blackwood if the timber has no runout and about two inches approx will be removed as heartwood and sapwood, to give approximately two
8 to 10 inch boards - if you are lucky...Necks, well a slightly different story. So what is the intended use and will a violin or guitar sized piece split with a froe yeild relative to grain runout and usefulness as stable timber for the instrument that the wood will be intended for? The end use of the log needs to be assessed prior to throwing money at a resawer.
Cheers! Ross