TRBaker Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 I recently had an opportunity to build some cabinets out of sinker cypress. These are cypress logs that have cured on a river bottom for several hundred years. It is absolutely a dream to work with and the colors are spectacular. I took a picture of the cabinets so you could see the colors. These are not stained. They are finished with poly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBaker Posted September 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2012 I just read an older thread about glue-ups on oily woods and it reminded me of something I should have mentioned on this post. Sinker Cypress is very oily and if you don't wipe it down with acetone before you finish it, it will give you problems. The first time I used poly on it, the first coat never dried. Instead it stayed sticky. I've never tried using shellac as a first coat, but I hear that solves the problem too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim0625 Posted September 21, 2012 Report Share Posted September 21, 2012 Wow....nice colors...I grew up swimming in "Black River" here in SC. It is stained from the decaying leaves in the swamps and ironically with white sandy bottoms so the river is clean but looks like a cup of coffee. "Lumber Landing" was where we swam as kids. Many decades earlier, the loggers would cut the huge cypress trees from the swamps, bring them to the landing and float them miles down the river and of course, there were a few sinkers. A guy I used to know heard about the sinkers in the 50s and located some logs on the bottom that had been there for a lot of years. He had them recovered, milled, and he built a HOUSE out them! His entire house is out of cypress. I've never been in the attic but I'll bet it is something to see. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBaker Posted September 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2012 If he retrieved enough of those logs to build a house, then he gave up a fortune. Those logs are extremely valuable now. The current price for 4/4 is $7.00 and 8/4 is $10.00 per board foot. That's wholesale price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodLight Posted October 2, 2012 Report Share Posted October 2, 2012 Gorgeous. I love that the finish is just poly. It doesn't need anything else. I've always been curious how people find those old sinker logs. Do people actually actively look for them (divers looking specifically for sunken logs) or is it more a chance kind of thing? Instrument makers love sinkers too. I've heard that in the "old days" violin makers would sink their own wood - sort of like a gift to his apprentice and his apprentice's apprentice that came after him. Meanwhile the same master would be using wood that his master and those before him had sunk decades before. Might be apocryphal, but I love the idea of all that forethought going into passing the tradition - and the wood - along. At any rate, beautiful colors and grain in that cypress. You made nice use of both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBaker Posted October 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2012 There are actually people who's sole business is salvaging sinker logs. They have made a fortune in the Great Lakes salvaging logs from sunken ships that were loaded down with logs and got caught in storms. Some of those logs were of the same species and quality that Stratovarius used to make his violins and it is now thought that they are the only hope that anyone has of ever reproducing the same sound from a new violin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted October 3, 2012 Report Share Posted October 3, 2012 is that the same kind of wood you have TR? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim0625 Posted October 3, 2012 Report Share Posted October 3, 2012 if you look at a Google Earth screenshot of the 29510 zip code, just north, you see Black River that has some straight parts but a lot of curves and switchbacks. There are places where the river is very narrow - 60 feet wide and in those sharp curves the logs would clog up and the guys walking the logs would have to untangle them. Not sure if the guy hired a diver or maybe he knew one of these guys working the logs but he knew where they would sink - particularly in the sharp, deep curves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBaker Posted October 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2012 Duck, I've got bald cypress and the woods in the Great Lakes are northern hardwoods. These cypress trees were floated down river to the mill, just like in northern rivers and a lot of them were too heavy to float. That was hundreds of years ago and it was virgin timber. You can't find trees like them any more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted October 3, 2012 Report Share Posted October 3, 2012 no is it the the same type of wood as Stradivarius were made out off because that would be really cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBaker Posted October 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 LOLOLOL.....no, I think that was maple. It's still cool wood though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 darn imagined cabinets that played great music Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bombarde16 Posted October 4, 2012 Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 no is it the the same type of wood as Stradivarius were made out off because that would be really cool. LOLOLOL.....no, I think that was maple. You're both right. Cypress was favored for soundboards, while maple (typically with a bold tiger pattern) would be used for the backs and necks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRBaker Posted October 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2012 Cool !!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jHop Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 Lot of cypress in the bayou and swamps near Louisiana, but I'm not certain where else it might be found. If you ever watched any of the lumber harvesting shows on Discovery, they added a guy who recovers sunken logs to make hearths out of. Basically cuts them in fourths down the length of the log. Second season he was on, they went somewhere warmer and had a competition with another group that does the same thing (in the second group's home waters). Haven't caught any episodes since, but there are definitely companies that do this. Seven decent logs from the river bottoms can cover a small company for at least three months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fricasseekid Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 I used to watch guys here in Louisiana on the shores of lake Ponchartrain. They would wait for low tides and bring chain saw with 36" bars on them and dig the logs out of the mud on the shore. Then a barge with a huge winch would pull the logs out of mud and drag em up onto the boat. They are getting harder to find now and there isn't hardly any old growth cypress left. The green and grey colors in sinker cypress aren't even present in the logs when salvaged. Once the logs are milled and air contacts the wood there is a chemical reaction that creates all the beautiful colors. Maybe I should dust off my diving gear? LoL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jHop Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 watch for gators, and take a buddy. (And a camera, if you can.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fricasseekid Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 I'm not worried about gators as long as they are 7' or less. Grew up learning how to water ski in gator waters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelby Swamp man Posted October 21, 2019 Report Share Posted October 21, 2019 I am partners with Shelby Stanga from the TV Show AX Men. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted October 21, 2019 Report Share Posted October 21, 2019 Welcome to the forums.. Please read the rules as we don't allow drive by advertising here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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