$1,000,000 tree?

[Steve]

Link to a thread with pictures about a tree in BC.

http://luthierforum.com/index.php?showtopic=306&st=75

[Tom]

That site requires that you join before you can enter.

What's the story?

Stanley

[Steve]

The site is owned by a fellow that is in the spruce tonewood business. He is in northern BC, I think near Terrace. He has just bought a big spruce that he thinks might be worth $1,000,000 in tonewood.
There are some pictures on the thread but I don't want to steal them.
This is a quote from him:
"If this tree is bearclaw which I think it is will be worth over I million Dollars. One tree 40 Cubic meters.
Now you understand why I protect my fibre Source and brand. "

[Tom]

I could stand a tree or two like that on my property.  A bearclaw, eh.  Must be some kind of luthier nomenclature.  Worth looking up.   I think I will dive into Google tonight.  :P

[Steve]

Tom

I believe "bearclaw" is a term to describe a kind of figure the wood has. A particular kind of curly wood. Sorta looks like a bear clawed it.

[Tom]

I saw some that was called "bear claw" in google and it looked kind of like magnolia does.  Like a topographical map.  I guess it would be caused by the tree having bumps or rings and the saw going through them straight.  Except the Magnolia shows when you flat saw it.   Sound boards are quarter sawed, aren't they?


Merle

[beenthere]

Googled a bit on Sitka spruce bearclaw
and came up with some hits.
One that indicates it is a grade of Sitka spruce, as here   Bearclaw spruce

Sitka spruce has an identifying mark in the annual ring that is termed a dimple characteristic (as Tom found too), and over the years has been tagged as 'bearclaw' mark (but its a dimple and not an indentation, like it is a small bump on a log if the bark were stripped away, so a bit opposite of a bear clawing the wood, I'd think).  Sitka has long been used as sounding boards in instruments, as well as airplane construction and props. It is noted for its straight grain, clear wood, and high strength to weight ration. (info from da books).    The big Sitka spruce tree available for cutting in a non-protected area might bring some good $$$, but a million?   : :   Maybe, maybe not.

[urbanlumberinc]

I'd heard of cats paws in wood grain, but never bear claws.  What's next, duck flippers? :D

[low_48]

Yeah, love those lumber adjectives. I have some plum-pudding mahogany. Others I have heard about; popcorn pattern, water fall curl, rope curl, angel pattern, ........
Here's a site that shows some nice plum pudding mahogany;
http://www.huffloudspeaker.com/veneers.html#Anchor-Koa-39778

[SwampDonkey]

What about:

Lacewood

Fiddleback

Flaming Birch

Tiger Figured Maple

[Percy]

Yeah, love those lumber adjectives. I have some plum-pudding mahogany. Others I have heard about; popcorn pattern, water fall curl, rope curl, angel pattern, ........
Here's a site that shows some nice plum pudding mahogany;
http://www.huffloudspeaker.com/veneers.html#Anchor-Koa-39778

Yeah, we have them up here too, specially for WRC. Things like "Chocolate Cedar", "Shotgun Rot" and one of my least favorite terms, " Wavin Like The Queen Cedar" ;D :D

[mike_van]

OH boy - I might have two million growing here - When we were in Alaska in '89, at the state fair in Palmer the boy scouts were giving away Sitka seedlings in tubes for a dollar ea. We brought two home, and they're growing fine - If only I could find a bear to  claw them up a little - Has to be a grizzly I 'spose???

[Steve]

Curly Koa example 8) 8)

[Left Coast Chris]

Interesting....... back in the early eightys I helped build a wood fired power house on Prince of Whales Island just west of Ketchacan Alaska.  The wood fired power house was intended to power the existing sawmill that sawed Sitka Spruce and Hemlock.  The spruce was all sold in cant form to the Japanese.   The mill operation loaded ship after ship of old growth spruce that were sent to Japan.    I can remember some of the spruce being about chest high and having to be split by chansaw to get it on the mill.    Unfortunately the loans went sour and the mill was shut down a year after we got the power plant up and going.    Wish I had some of those logs today......

[Steve]

Farmer77

In the 70's I lived on that same POW island. North end near Pt. Baker. We had an honest 9' spruce right off the trail in town. Old growth wood everywhere. Just a beautiful place there.

[kderby]

This is getting me all excited.  The "big industry" sawmill up the valley got some large 26-36 inch spruce on a trade.  They did not know what to do with them (only  ponderosa pine and doug fir for them).  I asked about the logs and now they are headed my way.  

They have been under sprinklers for a year.  This month they will get milled.

I promise two things:

1: pictures ;D
2: If I get any that have been touched by a bear appendages, I'll buy a round at the pig roast! 8) 8) )

Any ideas on special milling for spruce? ???  These fancy cants are vertical grain right? ??? :D

Stay Tuned!

[Steve]

Vertical grain for sure. The really particular tonewoods guys will cut logs into rounds then split them so the run perfectly with the grain (no runout) and then resaw.
8"+ wide by24"long will work for guitars

[urbanlumberinc]

Hey swampdonkey, whats up with the flaming birch, does it talk with a lisp, and use limp wristed gestures??? ???

[Tom]

Nah Man!!

Flaming Birch is "Hell hath no wrath like a woman scorned".

[SwampDonkey]

Flaming birch is dark as cherry when finished, and when in log form the color is pink like cherry wood. When it's peeled for veneer and you get at the transition between heart and 'sap' you get a sheet of veneer that looks like flames against the white wood. At least that's what I call flaming birch. ;)

[Ron Wenrich]

Your flaming birch example looks quite a bit like curly birch.  I talked to a guy whose father sawed curly birch for propellor props during WWII.  He was up in Ontario and got $15/Mbf, but it had to be clear. 

Most of our birch is black birch (Betula lenta).  Quite a bit has that dark heart, and sometimes it gets streaked.  I just turned a pen from one of those dark hearts, and I thought it looked better than the cherry did.

I've also heard sycamore called lacewood. 

Of course, there's always wormy maple that they call Ambrosia maple. 

[SwampDonkey]

Yup, I'll agree that birch looks like curly and not at all like what we call flaming birch here. Some people even call curly, tiger strips, especially when polished like glass. Similar to that of tiger maple. I think you can see it also is some of Daren's lures. Getting back to your black birch though, some regions actually call it cherry birch. I had a friend living in Va that I tried to explain this to, but had to end up quoting text and latin names. ;D According to my sources the only black birch in Canada where a small grove of about 50 trees west of Port Dalhousie, near the top of a long steep slope of deep rich soil facing Lake Ontario.

[urbanlumberinc]

Would this be considered flaming Birch?  I had been calling this spalted Birch, as several of the other boards cut from this tree had distinct "roadmapping"

[SwampDonkey]

looks like curly on the grain. In yellow birch there is the odd tree that has pink sapwood between the heart (all xylem wood) and the cambium. Alot of yellow birch has dark heart anyway, but this is pink as cherry. Some doors on my bathroom cupboards are flaming birch. You get the flaming affect when the wood is peeled for veneer only the doors don't show the effect I want to show. I was at a local sawmill a few years ago and they were saving out the flaming birch for the veneer buyers.