Wood Splitting (For Instruments)

[@JosephNusse]

Love this stuff! Wood is the most incredible gift nature has to give us.

[@MountainVoiceInc]

Thanks Joe! Ya its pretty amazing what a few hundred years will do under the right conditions.

[@DominelliGuitars]

Nice work guys. Looks like there's some nice instrument wood in there. I used to spend a lot of time cutting and splitting cedar billets for my guitars because it's pretty easy to find good cedar on the coast. But so much time is invested, and by the time you finally re-saw the billets into tops, often the wood has defects you had no way of knowing were in there....C'est la vie. The life of the wood hunters. Respect for what you guys are doing! High grade instrument spruce is a rare and special commodity.

[@MountainVoiceInc]

C’est la vie. So much time. We age them a few years in a shed while we are at it. It’s getting a bit harder to find the right trees, but we are still finding a few every year.

[@cin74au]

Fantastic video - you explained the process and reasoning behind it very well!

[@brentstewart59]

Very cool to see this

[@raytristani]

Beautiful work!

[@MountainVoiceInc]

Thank you very much!

[@studiohost]

Respect your froe dude !

[@MountainVoiceInc]

We make our own, I get why you say that, but we gotta take care of our bodies first. The length of splits and the volume of material we go through makes the goal to reduce the number of strikes required. Carpel tunnel after 1 log with a wood mallet. The latest hammer was heavy cast, that seems the reduce the impact on the steel and give the tool a chance.

[@psk1461]

Love this method. Actually makes no sense sawing directly. Very easy defects

[@psk1461]

Upcoming order is a nobrainer

[@MountainVoiceInc]

Awesome. It’s quite a bit more work than milling it, but that seems to be appreciated. We split violin, viola, cello, some guitar this way now. Really big instruments like bass tops or piano soundboard stay on the mill.

[@shanebrewster2384]

Awesome video! I’m a woodman up here in Alaska. Mostly doing firewood now. Its a limited resource. Been harvesting old growth Sitka Spruce thats been laying for 6 years. Some of the bigger ( 30-40” diameter) blocks are quite nice. I wonder about the possibility of instrument wood. Cheers. Thanks for sharing your craft. Are you using Sitka Spruce??

[@MountainVoiceInc]

Yes if they probably are suitable for instruments, If they split straight and have relatively tight growth rings. I know there is a guitar company up in Alaska that does just that. Salvage blowdown and split then resaw into guitar tops. We are using Engelmann spruce here, just happens that we live in a micro climate that makes some nice Engelmann. Sitka is a common instrument wood though, especially in guitars.

[@forrestmichnevich7371]

Are you using dead standing or green for this? I have some big Englemanns that were dead standing and they appear sound and have some knot free sections. I’d like to try. How do you store the bolts afterwards?

[@MountainVoiceInc]

This can be done green or dead standing. If dead standing then the outer wood may have to be removed as well. 2-3 “ approx. store outside if possible in a shaded covered area. I make sheds an store them like that for a few years.

[@forrestmichnevich7371]

Howdy I got around to cutting some billets out of a 34 incher. Has a little bit of blue beetle stain and some pink within. Question:does the freeze thaw process make for problems down the road…not sure if I should store in the garage or the root cellar where it won’t freeze

[@FrancoisOlignyLemieux]

Do the trees always need to be big like that to make violins?? What's the minimum diameter

[@MountainVoiceInc]

Good Question Short answer: To make really good ones yes. Long answer: Theoretically I would say a 20" diameter tree would have enough size to make a violin on either side of the heart wood, however the really fine tight grain trees with no knots are slow growing and only big trees standing beside big trees grow slowly. Plus we like to aim for a larger instrument like a cello so that we can still make a violin if we find a defect.

[@terryatpi]

Pine ?

[@MountainVoiceInc]

Spruce. engalmann