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Hey everyone! So I purchased a beautiful set of Spalted Zebrawood and I don't know exactly what to expect while working with this lumber. I have heard that it has similar workability to Indian Rosewood, but it doesn't plane or sand too easily. I have access to a wide belt sander and I was wondering if the wood would be okay after passing through that machine. But my main concern is bending the sides. How does this wood do when bending, and how should I go about it? I will be using a bending iron to do this. Thanks!

Built my first with Zebrawood. Not hard to deal with except for the thicknessing, as you say. Bends fine, but takes a good bit of heat. I bent by hand too, but at the time didn't have any idea what the temperature was. I just got it really hot! Not too much moisture. It might cup on you. You might wait for some other response, it's been 7 years since I built that guitar, and haven't used it since.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I've bent Zebrawood .085 thickness at 300 degrees with no problems. Be sure to add side splints or bias tape to the sides as I found Zebrawood to want to split out a bunch. I found out the hard way.

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Nice set!

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I think you'd be better off just sending that set to me for disposal!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I just built an OM from one of the other sets at RC Tonewoods (I assume that's where your set is from). I found that it bent easily, but don't use too much moisture. I put mine through a drum sander no problems, but I noticed during building that the spalting wanted to crack. I paid special attention and used a thin flush coat of CA over the sap/spalted area. Good luck with your build!