Anyone ever use submerged wood?

[Jim Becker]

One of the really kewel things about "sinker" logs and the lumber made from them is that a good portion of it is very old growth timber that is just unavailable anymore from growing forests. The tight grain is very different from "contemporary" trees and it highly prized. That can account for a good portion of the premium price that this material garners. I haven't personally acquired and used any to-date, but I do hope to have that opportunity at some point.

[Pete Staehling]

I have bought and used a lot of river salvaged Honduran mahogany from a dealer that specializes in it. They kiln dry the wood. It is as stable as any other wood I've used. I understand tropical sinker woods are prized for musical instrument material (guitars primarily) so it must be pretty stable. Maybe saltwater would have a different impact.

I have used the cypress as a tone wood in dulcimers and it has worked out very well.

[Jacob Reverb]

Bill and Pete, thanks for the info. I wonder whether being submerged causes minerals to precipitate in the voids within the wood, increasing its density/resonance and making it better for musical instrument soundboards...

Stan, thanks for the link. Definitely going to check that out, if only to drool.

Jim, the small growth rings from old timber is one of the aspects that intrigues me. One of the YP newel posts in this house (built 1892) has close to 100 growth rings IIRC in a 5" x 5" post, and those rings show almost no radial curvature, so God only knows how old and big that tree was...presumably, it would have been a decent-sized tree during the American Revolution. And after 135 years in this house, its end grain feels more like metal than wood...

[Michael A. Tyree]

Those mica sparkles never show up in the face grain. As for mahogany, I have far too much USA species to venture into the tropical woods, submerged or not. back when airlines allowed free carry-ons of items like wood, I toted some dandy stuff back home from places like Jamaica, ect.. Not in todays world though...

[Bill Jobe]

Michael, I'll bet that Chestnut from before the blight goes for a fortune!
They are trying to breed them back into existence using Chestnut from other continents. One variety is from China and it isn't much good for lumber.
But the work continues.
You can buy and plant what they have developed so far but they are not the same.
I read somewhere that a stand of about a dozen Chestnuts in the U.S. untouched by the blight have been located . Don't know if that's a fact.