...I was fortunate to purchase some well aged (for 50 years) spruce this fall. This wood was harvested, cut into planks and then stored as stair treads in the pictured three story barn by Chester D. Williams in about 1960. He wanted some of this special spruce to eventually be used to make violin top plates. He felt that by using them as stair treads, the constant flexing of the wood over time would result in improved tone when eventually used for instrument making. He cut the 200 year old old-growth spruce (which reportably grew at the 7,000 foot altitude on (the Washington State volcano) Mount Saint Helens in about 1960. He rough cut them into 2" by 34" by 10" planks and supported them only at each end; using them in this inside stairway in his three story storage barn and workshop just north of Vancouver Washington, in the shadow of Mount St. Helens. As the land was now being sold for subdivision development, he sold me the wood. ... I was proud to have visited with him before his final illness ended his long and full life a few weeks ago at the age of 85.

... and these are the spruce planks on the stairway insidethe barn {and of course Karen}. They have been walked on (stressed) for the last forty years. ...(Notice how they are only supported at each end.)

My lovely wife Karen who helped me remove the treads and haul them home. Since this was our 31st wedding anniversary, we were on our way out to dinner before returning home to Salem, Oregon. (Boy were they ever dusty!)

This is the stair tread side of the wood.

Here is a blank cut as an angle grain one piece violin top.... soon to be part of one of my new violins.