Brace Bar Grain

[gemini1]

I am building my first Flat Top mandolin and have a question about the proper grain orientation for the transverse brace bars. When I cut and camber the bars from the quartersawn spruce stock, how should the brace grain lines be oriented?

When looking down on the bars, placed on the spruce belly and ready to glue, will the brace grain lines be standing vertical and perpendicular to the belly, or will the grain lines be horizontal to the belly face?

Thanks

[Michael Lewis]

Typically the grain will be put in the vertical orientation, perpendicular to the gluing surface. It is interesting that Ervin Somogyi wrote an article for American Lutherie about the strength properties of grain orientation. His conclusion is that it is not usually critical for strength, but for cosmetic reasons you may consider otherwise. It is more important that you have strong wood than how the grain is oriented.

[Paul Hostetter]

Echoing Michael, because I wrote this and then took a long phonecall before posting it, ideally the grain should be perpendicular to the plate - that's its best structural advantage. But I have seen the insides of a lot of high-end vintage instruments where that rule was blatantly ignored without any detectable consequence.