Curly Maple

[Southside]

Can you put it in the garage or under a shed roof first?  I would be concerned with stump green maple going into that dry of a space, it might end up really, really, curly.  Darrel probably has no idea what a door yard is either.

[Darrel]

Goose Lake (Laveview) has an outlet that flows right into the north fork of the Pit River.  Only problem is that it's been something like 110 years since water levels have been high enough to achieve any significant out flow. So no fishing.

[Darrel]

Darrel probably has no idea what a door yard is either.

Hmmm. . . . . Could it be a 3 foot door? :D ;D :D

[Resonator]

My suggestion would be to saw some thick blocks too, you can probably find someone making gun stocks, knife handles, bowl turning, etc. You could also sell "Fiddle-Back Maple" boards for, well, fiddle-backs. (Although instrument makers can be fussy about wood, because musicians can be fussy...)     

[Firewood dealer]

S.L.
Yes I can put it outside under cover. Do you think if I left it out to air dry it would be dry enough in about a year?

Resoator
Actually, I was thinking about having some thicker blocks sawn out of it, I have a good friend that does a little guitar building and he would love to have some raw stock like that.

[Ianab]

Do you think if I left it out to air dry it would be dry enough in about a year?

Depending on the season and your local climate, 1" boards will only take a couple of months to "air" dry. Once the moisture is under ~20%, then it should be safe to bring inside and complete the drying. Below that MC it wont grow mold or fungus, and it's hard to mess it up by drying too slow or too fast.

Drying is slower in winter, and thicker boards will take longer of course.

Get a cheap moisture meter. Doesn't have to be super accurate for this sort of thing. If the wood reads around 17% +/- 2, then you can assume it's under 20%, and you can call it "air dried". Bring it inside, restack the boards, aim a couple of fans at them, and complete the drying in an "inside" environment.

[Firewood dealer]

Thanks. I have a moisture meter from drying firewood so I should be able to keep an eye on it.

[Sawmill Man]

If these are going into the water as fish traps , why are yall all concerned about moisture content?

[Firewood dealer]

Good Question. All I can think of is if it is not reasonably dry initially, the hardware that is attached to it may become quite loose as it does dry. I guess I do not really know. This is my first attempt to build some. In the past, I have only had store bought ones and those are typically made out of cheap ugly wood. One good thing about all of this is, if the fish are not biting, at least I can stand there admire some good looking traps!!  ;D

[WV Sawmiller]

  If it was me I'd sell the pretty lumber and buy some ugly traps - but that's just me.

[Southside]

With my luck pretty tip ups would be the same as expensive sunglasses - get run over the first time I used them.  The cheap / ugly ones however seem to last for years. 

[Don P]

If you made tourist traps out of them and sold them down in Freeport they would look good under a glass coffee table top and would never get wet.

[Southside]

Yea - but then you have to get a rainbow mounted to go with them, plus how do you tie a Mickey Finn onto a steel leader? 

[JRWoodchuck]

Darrel probably has no idea what a door yard is either.

Hmmm. . . . . Could it be a 3 foot door? :D ;D :D

Im going to guess it's how they buy doors..... By the yard?

[qbilder]

Before you mill the log, may I suggest that you cut a cookie from the end of the log and break it in half. It only has to be a couple inches. It'll be immediately revealed to you how the grain is formed and how best to saw it for showing the figure. What you'll see is that the curly figure shows perpendicular to the bark, meaning that quarter sawing will reveal it best. The better quarter sawed it is, the more figure it'll show. Plain sawing will serve you no justice, as it'll show the curl strongest on the edge of the board, not across the face of it. But don't take my word for it. Cut a cookie so that you and the sawyer know without a doubt how to expose the figure.