Anyone used Colorado "Blue" Spruce for table wood

[Rob Mercure]

Folks,

 

Was drivng a road within town that has only one house - owned by a physician - and I noticed that sometime over the past few months an enormous Colorado Spruce had been cut and the logs stacked for the town to take (we a "once-of-a-lifetime" snow last winter that took down trees that had survived for over 100 years).  But the reason that the town had not moved the logs yet was that some were over 40" in diameter and the shortest was around 8 feet long - the town doesn't own a knuckle loader especially one this big.  So if I were to want it I have around 1,200 board feet or straight spruce!!  Now if I were to assume at least 1/2 loss due to knots and another 1/2  loss due to my splitting the filtches, aging checking, and sanding I still wind up with 300 board feet tree or so.  The tree was around 86-89 years old when cut as best I could count (don't have a core drill anymore) with no cracking of disease streaks - it was only remove due to the $600K house that "grew up" in it's shade (not being native I assume that there was an older older house long gone).

 

Again, anyone used this wood    If I was younger and my health better I'd take a lot of it just to make large benchs and chainsaw sculptures but I can't handle that.  But if it splits like other spruces I could easily cut it to 48" lenghts and then split large filtches to store in the attic for a few years.  Not tens of tops but perhaps ten tops. 

 

Would make a nice compliment for that walnut I've still not picked up.

 

Rob

[FRANK]

yea it is worth every minute spent i happen to live in ag central and am sitting on hundreds of backs tops and sides necks binding everything i need so 4 years ago i started to cut and this year i have built 7 boxes so far from that very lumber cost$ 0 profit $00000000$ unknown my time many hours my experiences wow i learned quite a bit I suggest an Alaskan saw mill 3 slab the center and quarter the remaining

[FRANK]

there you go from rough to almost done

[FRANK]

id also like to add if i can that harvesting your own lumber is so gratifying it makes me work till the late hours on stuff like this .I happen to run acrossed a walnut farm one day and saw this giant log .I pulled over got out climbed up and the rancher came out told me to get down .I walked over and interduced my self and a friend ,gave him a card as he read my last name he asked if this guy that he knew was related ,I answered yes that's my dad i found out that we had gone to church together in the past .so after that we talked about his walnut and said ill give you these 3 trees they happened to be much smaller so i said well sure ,and the following Saturday 3 more and 3 more and 5 more and 15 more trees OK then the big 6 foot diameter crotch solid black 15 feet up 3 foot diameter trees it cost me approximately $2000 to cut it all down to 4 inch billets quartered .and so 4 years later look the top is reclaimed also was once a steam tower for steam trains 200 years ago then reclaimed to be pickle barrels and reclaimed once more to be my guitar top this is what FREE I mean FREE lumber can do I have 100s of backs and side and tops O DEER

[Rob Mercure]

Paul, If I'm up to it I'll probably grab some of the spruce but I'm not into investing in a chain mill while broke, ill and in my late 50s. Luckily spruce splits easily and I can split the shortest piece with wedges and then use my old Stihl 040 to cut it into pieces that a friend and myself can handle for seasoning. And, if I were to do my own tops I'd really like to split them as this really was considered the superior technique up unitl WWII when cheap large band mills dictated sawing.

Rob