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| Grain direction for Spanish slotted stacked heel? http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=40579 |
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| Author: | WendyW [ Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:47 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Grain direction for Spanish slotted stacked heel? |
I'm confused. I have used 1/4 sawn for neck blanks and stacked heels, but this time my neck is flatsawn birdseye maple. What grain direction should the heel stacks be? This will be a Spanish style heel with slots for the sides. Can I use flatsawn pieces of the same birdseye stock as the neck for building up the heel? Thanks, Wendy |
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| Author: | Jim Kirby [ Thu Jun 06, 2013 6:20 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Grain direction for Spanish slotted stacked heel? |
I suspect it will look funny if you switch the grain orientation between the neck and heel stack? I'd stick with the flatsawn orientation. Maple neck with a Spanish heel? Sounds like an interesting project. |
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| Author: | douglas ingram [ Thu Jun 06, 2013 9:04 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Grain direction for Spanish slotted stacked heel? |
I would stack all of the pieces in the same grain order. It blends together nicely, visually, and all of the wood movement will be consistent. |
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| Author: | WendyW [ Thu Jun 06, 2013 9:43 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Grain direction for Spanish slotted stacked heel? |
Thanks Doug and Jim, that's what I wanted to hear. |
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| Author: | douglas ingram [ Thu Jun 06, 2013 10:06 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Grain direction for Spanish slotted stacked heel? |
callyrox wrote: Thanks Doug and Jim, that's what I wanted to hear. So, then you already knew the answer! You're smarter than you think. |
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| Author: | WendyW [ Thu Jun 06, 2013 10:18 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Grain direction for Spanish slotted stacked heel? |
So do you think there is a problem using flatsawn for a spanish heel? I have my heart set on birdseye maple and all I can find is flatsawn or riftsawn that I already have, but have decided not to use. |
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| Author: | Colin North [ Thu Jun 06, 2013 11:13 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Grain direction for Spanish slotted stacked heel? |
callyrox wrote: So do you think there is a problem using flatsawn for a spanish heel? I have my heart set on birdseye maple and all I can find is flatsawn or riftsawn that I already have, but have decided not to use. That's Ok, I'll take them off your hands. 
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| Author: | Bryan Bear [ Thu Jun 06, 2013 12:38 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Grain direction for Spanish slotted stacked heel? |
I have never done a Spanish heel, so someone may come by and tell you why this won't work. . . I would consider laminating the neck blank with a center strip and have the flatsawn edge on the sides of the neck. You then would have no heel stack at all and the birdseye figure would show most on the sides of the neck and heel. Just thinking out loud. . . |
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| Author: | Jim Kirby [ Thu Jun 06, 2013 2:13 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Grain direction for Spanish slotted stacked heel? |
Mechanically, I don't think there is a problem with the spanish heel and flatsawn orientation. I've never used birdseye - I'd have to defer to Bryan on which orientation is the right one visually - no clue here. |
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| Author: | Michael.N. [ Thu Jun 06, 2013 2:44 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Grain direction for Spanish slotted stacked heel? |
Visually there isn't a right or wrong. Hard going carving a Neck/heel out of birds eye, you have my sympathy. |
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| Author: | Barry Daniels [ Thu Jun 06, 2013 3:07 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Grain direction for Spanish slotted stacked heel? |
Birds eyes mostly show on the flat sawn side, so that orientation would be best visually. Flat sawn should pose no problem with stability because hard maple is plenty strong for nylon strings. Carving a neck from birds eye maple is not much harder than anything else. I did about a half dozen from it and the only thing to be cautious about is using a handplane because it can chip out the eye if your not careful. |
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| Author: | Michael.N. [ Thu Jun 06, 2013 3:53 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Grain direction for Spanish slotted stacked heel? |
You've obviously never done Cedrela then. There's a world of difference! Cedrela carves itself. |
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