I got this piece of wood out of the select pine bin at Home Depot this morning. #While I certainly understand it's no master grade piece of wood, I was wondering if any of you could help me with:
1) #What species?
2) #Is this quartersawn?
3) #Does it look anywhere near soundboard quality?
I don't really care if it's not high quality since I'll be using it to practice carving a top...it seems to have a bit of a ring to it...and it was 14 bucks for a 1X6X10'...
Last question, should the tighter grain be in the center or at the outer edge?
Thanks,
Rob
"If you can make it to 50 without growing up, you don't have to..."
Dead quartered would have the grainlines a little more straight up and down. What you have is slab sawn wood, but cut from a large enough tree that it came out essencially quartered.It's the section from near the center to the outside on one side of the tree.
Now you will have to slip-join it to make a top. you won't have a true bookmatch. That's great for practice, and it would probably make an adequate top.
If you have Siminoff's old book, he makes reference to how to orient this type of wood.
Couldn't tell you what the species is, but looks like it might work for carving practice, and might make a faily good top. If it's pretty soft (pine), carve a bit thicker.The plank is not quartered, but skew or rift cut, meaning that the grain lines are not perfectly vertical. Glue it together with the tight grain in the center, and orient the grain like this:
Anything with grain lines going through the board from 45 degrees to 90 degrees is comercially quartersawn, so that would qualify. Some would call that rift sawn.
It looks to me like it could make a soundboard, but the stiffness and hardness are the important aspects, so obviously I can't say.
Species.... well even though it's fun to try to guess at species at 72 dpi, it's impossible. I'd say probably spruce of some sort, or fir.
I'd put the tighter grain to the center for a couple of reasons.
1. it looks more traditional
2. part of what is going on in that board is the angle of the grain lines changing more toward 45 degrees toward one side and making the grain look wider. That means the tighter looking edge is the more nearly quartered edge, and IMO would be better in the center of the top.
I thought it might be spruce and looked like the grain was ok for a top....I have tapped it many times ;-) and it has some ring to it... It also has a nice shimmer which didn't come out in the photos and only 2 small knots in the whole ten feet!
I'm taking it to our community wood shop today to cut it into slips and edge plane it. I'll glue it up tonight then take it back on Tuesday night to thickness it down to 5/8" so I can start carving it!
--Rob
"If you can make it to 50 without growing up, you don't have to..."
If I were you, using that piece of wood, I'd not worry about matching, and I'd reface the board more on quarter, and use the next part of the length, turned around 180 degrees for the 'other side'.
You may get beginners luck, then Red Henry will want your mandolin.
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