I have this chunk of pretty wood...

[jartzh]

oldest question in the book.
I do wood sculpture so I end up with beautiful slabs of wood all the time.
I want to build a dreadnought from scratch (just finished my first kit).
Is it feasible to harvest the back and sides from a pretty piece of hardwood? various species?
Can I find a shop that can cut and plane the slab? how much would that cost? Do I need it kiln dried also?

Thousand questions. basically , am I beating my head against a post? would I save time and money and heartache just starting with the wood pieces I want from a supplier?

[tippie53]

you need to use dried wood so be careful of the woods supply and the way it was handled. I would tell you buy from a good supplier , in the long run it will save you money and time.

[MaineGeezer]

You (or somebody) can resaw a slab on a bandsaw to, say, 1/4" thickness, then use a thickness sander to get it down to whatever thickness you want. Or, if you're ambitious, use a hand plane.

But heed John's caveat about being sure the wood is dry, and the way it was handled may affect it as well. Sure, you can get sides and back out of a random slab of wood, but be prepared to have it warp on you or otherwise behave badly, and have to discard it. On the other hand, it might be fine. No harm in trying, except it may turn out to be a waste of your time. If the spirit of inquiry is sufficient to offset the possibility of failure, have at it.

If you want to ensure success, however, buy your sides and back from a reputable supplier.

[Tarhead]

If you want to use something from your stash here is what you need to consider:

For optimal strength and stability you want your fretboard, top, back, sides and neck to be quartersawn and the bridge rift sawn. I've seen plenty of guitars with flatsawn backs. Some woods are difficult to find wide enough (Cocobolo) to make a 2 piece QS Dread back. There's nothing wrong with 3 or 4 piece backs or tops if you can get a tight joint and have an eye for grain matching. For a dread top and back you'll need 16" of total width.(15 5/8" + 3/8" more for a 3/16" wear edge around the circumference.

You also want the wood to be from the main trunk and not from limbs. Limb wood is fine for firewood and turning but it will go wonky when it is sliced into sets and will be prone to splitting. Even though you've had a chunk of wood drying for many years, after resawing, it will need to be stacked, stickered and ratchet strapped tightly for a few weeks or more to get it to acclimate to its new size and environment.

As far as getting your wood resawn...go to the nearest woodworking store and ask if any of their customers offer resawing service for guitar backs/sides. Most Woodcraft stores have a bulletin board with offers for different services. You could also join some of the luthier forums (MIMF, Luthiersforum, UnofficialMartinguitarforum) or woodworking forums (Sawmill Creek, Lumberjocks, Woodnet) and post a resawing request for anyone with experience cutting guitar sides/backs in your area. After it stabilizes from resawing, you'll want to have the sides, backs and tops thickness sanded so include this in your request for resawing. If you're in the Charlotte, NC area pm me and we can work something out.

Mark

you need to use dried wood so be careful of the woods supply and the way it was handled. I would tell you buy from a good supplier , in the long run it will save you money and time.

I second that advice.
The time, effort and expense you put into building a guitar could all turn to sh!# by using wood from unknown sources.

[jartzh]

I ask this question because I had a pile of soft maple I was cutting up to burn in my pit and found some pretty pieces with a lot of birdseye and quilting. so I ended up cutting all the wood up for storage and only burning the bark.
I find that often when I am roughing out a log for a sculpture. so if I have the wood I thought "why not give it a try".

here is the kind of stuff I do:
www.facebook.com/artbyjustinhowell

thanks for all you guys' advice. I will start keeping an eye out for possibilities as I process my next logs.