Here is a picture of the little deck off our kitchen.
I've been wondering what kind of tree that is. The leaves look like Cherry but it is a huge tree. Look at it rising up behind my house:
After studying Green Mountain trees I have found the it is indeed a wild Black Cherry. Where there is one there will be more.
Let's go shopping! Ideally, I'll find a nice big standing dead Black Cherry wide enough to cut back and side sets. Cherry is also an excellent substitute for Mahogany so if I'm lucky there will be plenty left over for necks, interior blocks, and kerfing.
I want standing deadwood because it has already begun the aging process. Besides why kill a tree if you can do better with an already dead one?
Well that was easy:
The big one in the middle is almost two feet wide at the base. It appears the top got snapped off in the strong winds we get up here. The top likely is what killed the smaller ones around it. The standing dead trunk looks to be about 25 feet high. Lots of neck etc. there!
Further down into the woods I have a dying behemoth:
This is an old growth Sugar Maple (Hard Maple). There are still a couple branches clinging to life but there is a lot of standing and fallen dead wood. I wish I could see this tree 25 years ago when it was still in full majesty. The hole in canopy remains as a testament to it's reign:
The trunk is about twelve and a half feet around. Looking at some of the dead wood on the trunk you can see how the crush of it's weight rippled the wood for some nice curly figure:
On the windward side there is this fallen branch:
See the fungus? That's is a good indicator of spalting and the fact that this is off the ground means I'll likely find some which isn't too rotted.
Further up the branch we have this interesting burl combined with some crunched up grain:
Spalting, burl, and crazy grain, make for wonderful decorative rosettes and headstock laminates.
Time to sharpen up the saws and cash these babies out!