Grain Orientation in Bridge

[Bob Menzel]

I've read that some builders prefer skewed rather than quartersawn wood for steel string bridges with the thinking that it is less prone to splitting. If you are one, the question is which direction is the better choice? Grain leaning toward the nut \\\\\\\, or away from the nut ///////?

[Michael Lewis]

I have seen bridges with all sorts of grain orientation, and all of them can split if given the right circumstances. The main thing to keep in mind is GENERALLY wood splits radially, or to put a bit more graphically, from the center of the log out. That means flatsawn wood is more prone to cracking. Sometimes. Much depends on the quality of the piece of wood you are making a bridge from.

[Alan Carruth]

It depends a bit on where you're expecting it to split.

Skew cut is the most split resistant, in general, I think. If you have problems with splits along the line of pins on a steel string then skew relative to the top might be the best, and I'm not sure if one direction is better than the other. If you're more worried about the front of the saddle slot splitting out then maybe dead vertical would be as good as anything. Of course, the real solution to that issue is to move the slot back from the leading edge of the bridge a little, but you can't do that on a repair, in many cases.

[Trevor Gore]

Laminate a layer of carbon fibre in there and you'll never have to worry about splitting.