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I picked up a piece of flat sawn Black Locust to use for a finger board for the build challenge. Would a FS finger board be stable enough, or should I re-saw and laminate a quarter sawn three piece finger board? The board I got is 4/4 x 5.25" x 7', dead flat and well seasoned. I plan on using it for a bridge as well, but it should be easy to find some riff sawn in the board.
Maybe I should make several of each finger boards, let them sit around for a while, and see what they do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Hi alex I plan to use a black locust fb that is 1/4 sawn on my current build for a small bodied 12 fret nylon gtr.Have cut quite a few pcs of this wood oversize IMHO they always warp, especially when using a water based glue.I split , seasoned , and resawed all the locust to come out 1/4 sawn , and 3 out of the 4 pcs were milled to 8mm.There is a small bulge in the center, and concavity on the flip side. I/ve also used it for uke bridges.Would err on the side of caution as this wood seems to move with the seasons here in the climate of kansas city mo.

Hi alex I plan to use a black locust fb that is 1/4 sawn on my current build for a small bodied 12 fret nylon gtr.Have cut quite a few pcs of this wood oversize IMHO they always warp, especially when using a water based glue.I split , seasoned , and resawed all the locust to come out 1/4 sawn , and 3 out of the 4 pcs were milled to 8mm.There is a small bulge in the center, and concavity on the flip side. I/ve also used it for uke bridges.Would err on the side of caution as this wood seems to move with the seasons here in the climate of kansas city mo.

Hi, Alex,
I have done some carving with locust, but I've never done a fingerboard, so please understand this is only my hunch...okay?

I think you will probably be happier if you re-orient your wood into vertical grain. I say that for this reason: All wood--no matter how dry--moves, as we know. Vertical grain wood, no matter what the species, tends to get thicker and thinner. Flat sawn wood tends to get wider and narrower. These are generalizations, but they are general because they tend to hold true across all species.

Thus, on something like a fingerboard, I think you might be happier with wood that moves microscopically up and down with relation to the strings, rather than wood which might tend to get microscopically wider and narrower with regard to your neck width at the playing surface. A fingerboard which gets wider and narrower might expose sharp fret ends during dry, shrinkage periods. It might even cause the frets to push binding off the fingerboard. (Those frets aren't going to move with the wood). On the other hand, a fingerboard which gets thicker and thinner might conceivably cause a fret buzz during certain times of the year. This would depend on your set up, string height, your winter heating system, etc. It's wood. No matter what the species, it's gonna move, and occasionally it will demonstrate its movement by causing us some little problems. We can deal with these little problems, but it's easier if we try to head most of them off at the pass.

I have re-read this three times. I'm not sure I expressed it correctly, but I sure hope so.
Bottom line: Go ahead and re-orient your wood into vertical grain. In the long run, I think you'll be glad you did. There's much less risk that way. This is just my opinion, but it's definitely the way I would do it.

Patrick

Thanks, Patrick. I pretty much figured that quarter grain would be more stable. I have a fair amount of cabinetry experience, and I am always considering the movement of wood, but with so many knowledgeable members here, not asking would be dumb! This will be my first guitar, but it will be a bolt on neck, so I can always swap it out. Unless it turns out to be a [u]total[u] piece of junk!
My grade three teacher told me to not be afraid to make mistakes because thats how we learn. I figure that I'll be doing a lot of learning. . I'll make some blanks and see how they react. Maybe I'll come up with a plan B, just in case.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker