Reaction wood

[Bob Gramann]

I'm getting near the end of my supply of real mahogany. The board that this neck came from has produced a couple of dozen guitar necks with no problems (that I know of, yet). Some of it, I cut into backs and sides. Again, no problem. This neck has vertical grain relative to the fingerboard gluing surface. The grain is pretty straight and nothing visible betrays any tension in the wood. The crack occurred with a snap as I was finishing cutting out the peghead on a band saw. Hand pressure is not sufficient to close the crack although it will close completely if clamped. I'm sorry to lose the labor that went into getting the neck this far, but I'm glad this wood didn't get into the guitar. The new neck will be khaya. I don't think that I'm going to use the last plank in the stack that was cut adjacent to this one. I hope the necks from this wood that are already in circulation don't exhibit problems. I post this because it is interesting to me and I've never seen reaction wood with this much tension in it before.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Yowza! That piece has major attitude!!

[Dan Smith]

I ripped some kind of African Mahogany to use for necks and it bent into a crook after sawing.
After sawing a neck plank, I let it set for a week or two to see if moves at all.

[David King]

When I first started I had a giant piece of 2" sapele that had the best looking interlocked grain I've ever seen. I tried resawing a section for some neck laminations and they all bowed like mad off the table saw. They are still sitting in the rafters 29 years later.

[Glenn Ohman]

Thanks for sharing. A great example of why it is wise to always rough rip parts out on the band saw, not the table saw.

Are you having trouble sourcing genuine mahogany?

Glenn

[Bob Gramann]

I haven't seen any mahogany that I wanted for two or three years. When I find any at a lumber yard now, it seems to be the stuff that no one wanted left over from several years ago. I'm pretty picky about grain direction.

[Peter Wilcox]

it is wise to always rough rip parts out on the band saw, not the table saw.

Glenn

Please explain why - no comprendo.

[Clay Schaeffer]

When you rip on a tablesaw you generally use a fence. The internal stresses can either bind the blade (wood closes up on it) or push against the fence and blade (wood gaps open), both of these things causing a kickback. The band saw because of the narrowness of the blade and direction of travel is less likely(never?) to kick back the wood.

[Mark Fogleman]

Heck...handful of drywall screws and a cup of epoxy. Good to go!

[Glenn Ohman]

it is wise to always rough rip parts out on the band saw, not the table saw.

Glenn

Please explain why - no comprendo.

Sorry for the slow reply. For me, it is safer, I get a better yield out of boards, and it is still accurate enough that a pass (or two) on the jointer cleans up the band sawn surface.

Cutting into reaction wood on a table saw is dangerous and hard on the machine.

Glenn