Are there luthiers who will build with your wood?
If you manage to have some dried lumber from the tree I might be able to help. Most of my dulcimers are kind of unique in a number of ways, but if they are of interest to you, I would be willing to work with customer supplied lumber that was properly dried. I am used to breaking down larger pieces into pieces suitable for instrument parts.
My instruments are non traditional in a number of ways and most of them are travel oriented. If that interests you you might have a look at:
Yeah.... you could probably make a couple of dulcimers out of a 4 ft diameter walnut log....<grin>
There are certainly builders who will work with your wood, but it needs to be cut and cured (dried) properly. Your "tree cutters" can cut the trunk into logs about 3-4 ft long. Hopefull the good parts of the tree are 8"-10" in diameter. But unless the "cutters' work for a sawmill, they won't have any idea of what to do beyond that. A local sawmill, or someone with a large band saw, can then slice the logs into planks of varying widths and ideally about 1/4" or 1/2" thick. These planks are then stacked together with spacers to allow air in between the planks, and allowed to air dry slowly (out of the sun) for 6 months or so before they can be used for building instruments or anything.
updated by @gwyn-calvetti: 08/04/23 06:43:45AM
