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I've been reading this article on Wired Magazine (I'm a geek) about a submersible robot which can harvest healthy timber from long-forgotten underwater forests and man-made reservoirs... Water-aged tonewood?
We might need to buy Bruce Harvie a scuba-diving set
Germain
....and get our better minds to design an underwater moisture content meter so he can decide which ones to bring up first!
Ron
My wife says I don't pay enough attention to what she says....
(Or something like that...)
Fine woodworking magazine, as I recall, had an article about brazilian rosewood trunks salvaged and brought up by divers with saws. The oldwave charity auction mandolin just sold saturday had back and sides made from mesquite that spent decades on the bottom of an irrigation reservoir in northern mexico.
Looks like theres a lot of salvage wood worldwide. Im still hoping to find the maple beams from Noah's ark.....
Wasn't that built all out of dogwood?Originally Posted by (oldwave maker @ Feb. 05 2007, 06:11)
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Nothing is fool proof for a talented fool
Wasn't that a Quentin Tarrantino film?
It was made out of Gopherwood.Wasn't that built all out of dogwood?
I wonder why they didn't harvest all that wood before creating the resevoir?
Steve Davis
I should really be practicing instead of sitting in front of the computer.
.. while I wonder why they didn't get photographs of the thing.
I suspect that this one area of 154 square miles had a lots of trees, and 53 years ago, there wasn't a lot of demand for lumber in this area. It could been lack of manpower, money, or resources.
I think it's a cleaver way to harvest good wood.
I think the fish might not like it since the forest is now their home.
Look up (to see whats comin down)
I wonder too, philosophically, but I also think I know the answer.
There was still so much timber in those days, that the mentality was that there was an infinite supply. Why bother with those few trees, we got serious logging to do! If there was a cost/benefit study on logging the area first, it probably said "why bother?"
The question; "why did they use all that Brazilian rosewood for paneling, furniture, and boats when is should have been saved for guitars?" has a similar answer.
Funny, in a way, that "underwater logging" (sounds like a joke!) would be more economical than "regular" logging these relatively few years later.
It's also funny, in a way, that they are touting the environmental friendliness of the operation. It's like; "it's already ruined, so we're not hurting anything".
John Hamlett
www.hamlettinstruments.com
From the Phoenix Mandolin website:
"The bridge base is made from resonant ancient-forest maple recovered from Lake Superior by Timeless Timber."
Wye Knot
Timeless Timber has been around for several years. They recover old logs that did not float and mill them.
Bill Snyder
Dunno if this has made the rounds here, but it does seem apropos.
http://www.fineguitarconsultants.com/lucky12.htm
Not quite sinkers.
I guess they weren't thinking about disturbing the underwater ecosystem that that stuff has created. Any fishermen knows the importance of structure to fish...
Andrew Lewis
Collings MT2, Tone Gard, Tortis Style C heavy, bootlace strap, J74s
Bill James started this thread about the Lucky 12.Dunno if this has made the rounds here, but it does seem apropos.
http://www.fineguitarconsultants.com/lucky12.htm
Not quite sinkers.
Bill Snyder
not to mention how they are going to stir up the sediment thats been on the lake bottom for how many years?
The first of this stuff I ever saw was long ago... a slab table that a pal in Indianapolis uses for a living room table. He says it came from a plank from the side of a ship sunk in Lake Erie in the 18th century. It's just gorgeous.
I played a Tacoma guitar at First Quality Music in Louisville that had a lake-aged top. They claimed that the log had been a couple of hundred years old.
it looked just wonderful, like it had a zillion great stories (songs...) in it, and it had a character to the sound that reminded me of pre-WWII guitars.
Very nice. I'd love to have some instruments made of that stuff.
I did read the Wired article, too. There was also a good program on PBS about the folks who lumbered in Vermont and New Hampshire and ran the logs downriver from there. Many of those huge old spruce trunks sank, and much land was flooded to expand the river course. Interesting...
stv
steve V. johnson
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<LOL!!!> I actually missed your joke, Dan, until I read the thread title tonight.
"Reservoir Logs"....featuring Mr. Spruce, Mr. Oak, Mr. Maple, and Mr. Pine.
--Mike Buesseler
MikeB, I'm afraid you'll have to play Mr. Pink.
Jamie
There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. Logan Pearsall Smith, 1865 - 1946
+ Give Blood, Save a Life +
Bog wood has been available for many years now in the veneer trade. Some of these trees fell into the bog before Jesus walked the earth and are still usable. I understand that there is quite a bit of Redwood being brought up from the rivers in the Northwest that sank to the bottom around the turn of the last century.
Greg
An artist has to deal with his own inner demons.
A craftsman has to deal with his clients.
Wow, that's about when I started learning to PLAY!
(How come I have to be Mr. Pink?!?)
--Mike Buesseler
One of my best sounding mandolins was built using sitka that I got from Spruce. It lived under a housebost in Alaska for 25 years. Not as far back as Christ, but some mighty good wood. David
David
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