Branch wood usually has tension in it, from the branch holding itself up, so it may be hard to get it to stay straight. It's certainly worth a try. At the farm where I used to live we got a sawmill in 2007 and had it till we left in 2022, so I got to make quite a number of instruments using wood from trees I had cut and milled into boards and dried. For smaller branch size wood you can make a sled to saw it into boards on a decent sized bandsaw with the right blade. I haven't done that myself, but have read of it on online forums. I don't know anything about Arizona walnut, as I've never been out west at all, but here's a link to someone who sawed one on the Forestry Forum.
forestryforum.com/board/index....c=89691.0

Need to season the wood a couple years after it’s cut. If not it could split and twist..

If you're going to use wood from one of your own trees, especially if it's a wood known for twisting, be sure to give it a few years to dry. And when you make the neck be sure to install an adjustable truss rod.

Also you'll make the neck more stable if you make the neck like a sort of plywood: split the neck and put a thin veneer in the middle, as was very common in years past. Edge binding and purfling will also help keep it stable. And you might want to use a fully dried ebony fingerboard glued on to the neck wood. All those different elements will make the neck a fancy sort of plywood, and quite a bit more stable than otherwise.

You might also want to research the tonal qualities of whatever type of wood you choose to work with. I have no idea what apple wood, for example, would sound like. There are good reasons that folks build necks out of maple, walnut or mahogany, or occasionally rosewood.

Warnings about seasoning and stability of branch wood are to be heeded.
Personally, I would never use branch wood for instrument work because of it's lack of stability, whether seasoned or not.

I bought a sawmill in 1986, so I have self-milled wood that is probably older than some people reading this, and I've made banjo necks, guitars and mandolins from almost all self-harvested wood (ebony, rosewood and such are of course sourced otherwise). It can be rewarding to produce an instrument made from "the tree".

Most recently I've been using spruce from 180 year-old trees that blew down in a wind storm on the Henry Clay estate in Lexington KY. There is documentation that Henry Clay himself planted "Norway spruce" there, and we assume that this is wood from those trees. Paired with curly maple from a firewood pile near Winchester KY, I've made a couple of mandolins with all woods (except the ebony) from within 20 miles of where I live.

Go for it(!), but stay away from limb wood, use the trunk wood, dry and season it well, and have fun.

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Originally posted by sunburst

Warnings about seasoning and stability of branch wood are to be heeded.
Personally, I would never use branch wood for instrument work because of it's lack of stability, whether seasoned or not.

I bought a sawmill in 1986, so I have self-milled wood that is probably older than some people reading this, and I've made banjo necks, guitars and mandolins from almost all self-harvested wood (ebony, rosewood and such are of course sourced otherwise). It can be rewarding to produce an instrument made from "the tree".

Most recently I've been using spruce from 180 year-old trees that blew down in a wind storm on the Henry Clay estate in Lexington KY. There is documentation that Henry Clay himself planted "Norway spruce" there, and we assume that this is wood from those trees. Paired with curly maple from a firewood pile near Winchester KY, I've made a couple of mandolins with all woods (except the ebony) from within 20 miles of where I live.

Go for it(!), but stay away from limb wood, use the trunk wood, dry and season it well, and have fun.

As an aside,, some people reading this might own Stelling Virginian, Bellflower or other walnut Stelling banjos made from wood off of my sawmill. My first business dealing with Geoff was using my sawmill to mill walnut trees from his pasture into banjo neck blanks.

I'm not a banjo builder, rather, I spend 1 hour a day being abusive to a banjo and torturing all within earshot. But I enjoy myself.
Anyhow, I do carve. 800$ walking stick recently. I use interesting wood from my yard, wood most would never think to mess with. Lilac, Mock Orange, Osage orange, and more 'traditional' woods also. My sticks that I collect are fully naturally seasoned slowly in my (mostly) dry cellar for at least FIVE years.

On a related note I have wished I had the skill to build a banjo. I've wondered what a block rim made of Osage orange would sound like, maybe with a Cherry neck?

This is *just* for a mountain banjo, ala Foxfire and Stanley Hicks. That doesn't mean I want to waste my time, but it's half instrument half folk art. Its just some pieces of wood and stovepipe and a groundhog slung together (OK maybe not groundhog). It won't have a truss rod, and it will have a 1 piece neck. See pic

My thinking was to shape the neck from a branch, rather than try to mill it. I don't have a quality band saw so the most I might do its slice a straight cut for the fingerboard with my table saw. Of course I don't know how well this will work, which is why I asked. I am not aiming for fine art but I would like it to be somewhat playable.

Most of the apple is already twisted, providing very few good selections. I found a branch that's been dead for at least a few years (the bark is gone) that still appears to be good wood, and is pretty straight. But that's the exception. There is also a live branch on a fallen tree that looks good, so I will heed the cautions and maybe paint the cut ends to help it dry slow. But the walnut is what really intrigues me.

Walnut is supposed to be stable wood (although all info comes from Juglans nigra, not the Juglans major I have access to), but maybe branch wood would be less stable. I think there is enough of it that I can experiment with faster and slower drying sections. It is alive, so it will definitely need drying.

I had that Foxfire book (among others) in my misspent youth, and fully intended to build a banjo from those instructions, but alas I got all fancy and started building bluegrass style resonator banjos instead. Maybe one day I'll still make one of those, just for fun.

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Originally posted by stomapicker

I'm not a banjo builder, rather, I spend 1 hour a day being abusive to a banjo and torturing all within earshot. But I enjoy myself.
Anyhow, I do carve. 800$ walking stick recently. I use interesting wood from my yard, wood most would never think to mess with. Lilac, Mock Orange, Osage orange, and more 'traditional' woods also. My sticks that I collect are fully naturally seasoned slowly in my (mostly) dry cellar for at least FIVE years.

On a related note I have wished I had the skill to build a banjo. I've wondered what a block rim made of Osage orange would sound like, maybe with a Cherry neck?

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Hello. Off topic from the OP, but can I ask, do you season for walking sticks with the bark on or strip it when it's green (I have recently had a go at making walking sticks and am quite interested)?

I leave bark on. Many times I will take the stick down with a draw knife to the point of using gouges, leaving some underbark on in the main area of interest in order to gain more contrast.

To be clear, above is After seasoned, when doing the carving.
Russ.

Excellent thanks