Official Luthiers Forum!

Okay, one more question and I promise I'll put the keyboard down for at least a few days.

I found some nice Claro wanut boards that I am considering picking up, but they are all rift-sawn. My gut tells me that rift-sawn backs/sides (sides, specifically), are probably not the best idea, but the boards are on for a good deal, so I'm tempted to get them anyway if I can scrounge up the cash.

In the opinion of the experts on here, should I be leary of building with rift-sawn backs and sides? If doing so is going to cause me to run in to stability issues and bending issues, I might take a pass, but I just wanted to get a second opinion before I make up my mind.

Thanks!

Back and sides material is rarely perfectly quartered. And if you open any high-end guitar dealer website you will see a bunch made with *flatsawn* wood. Of course flatsawn is less stable and less solid than quarter but it is accepted by many builders. More important is to dry it well and make all assembly in less than 50% humidity.

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Build log

Vertical grain big walnut boards are plentiful. If you can avoid rift sawn, avoid it. If you can't, as with a lot of exotics, live with it. However a lot of hardwoods are less stable and more crack prone when rift sawn. It is difficult to join backs, and have sides meet cleanly at the tail and head: with rift-sawn, as you sand down, the joint line logically moves.

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

Thanks, guys! Here is a picture of the board in question. The left edge is quartered for about the first three inches, and then slowly slopes to about 30 or 40 degrees off-quarter near the right edge of the board.

If I cut the sides from the first five inches of width, and backs from the first eight inches of width, do you think I would run in to any stability issues or bending issues with the wood?

That'll do fine.

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Not a thing wrong with that piece of Claro. BUY IT !!!!!!!!!!

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Ahem....Where did you find the claro in Calgary Poppa?