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I Had my first expérience with bloodwood, and i'm bit sad!

I've cut 2" x 4" by about 3/16"-1/4" thick blanks (to make guitar picks). I had in mind to get out few fingerboard of my lumber, but my little blanks have all BROKEN with a little pressure applied by finger... WHAT IS THIS!? It was breaking like you can broke spagettis, i swear... Ok, grain was like at 50-55 degrees not quartersawn, but anyway, it's supose to break like this, hu?

Please tell me they're was a problem somewhere...this wood is too beautiful to not use it for fingerboards!

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

is the grain direction perpindicular to the strings when you strum? I have never played with a wooden plectrum, so I am not sure of design, but i would imagine they should be rather thick. 3/16" w/ grain perpindicular to strings?

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It is better to try and fail, than never try at all

I didn't made the picks yet...

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Quite a few of those tropical hardwoods are splitty and cracky when you get them thin... but 1/4" is still pretty thick. I haven't had a problem with Bloodwood being more easily cracked than most any others, though...

Possibly, you got a bad piece with either a drying defect or some sort of Wind shake defect in it (Where the rings delaminate from eachother in the wood..)

I think I would use Flat sawn wood for picks... I could see a thin piece folding along grain lines and splitting.

Thanks

John

It sounds like you cut your blanks from the end grain. If that's the case, almost any wood would do that.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

What Laurent said,

Plus what does a fret board have in common with a pick as far as suitability or qualities of a particular type of wood are concerned ? The demands of a pick are very different than a fret board so even if you aren't using end grain the failure of your wood to make a pick doesn't preclude it from being used as a fret board.
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.