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I have these blocks of mahogany with a fair amount of end grain checks (I can't tell exactly how deep they are). I would just cut the checked parts off, but I'd like to use these blocks for necks and they're only 19 3/4" long, so I don't have a whole lot of wiggle room.

Would superglue and sawdust do a good enough job? I won't be able to apply any clamping pressure while they dry, so I'm just not sure if there's any way to make an invisible repair.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Not for a neck or any other structural part.

eh braedyn , I would skip its use for neck, unless you could resaw the mahog to get as close to vertical grain, and laminate thinner strips of maple and walnut or ?? so that the cracked areas of the mahog would fall away from your cut lines. e.g. 1 center clear piece of mahog, 1in wide 2 pieces of h. maple 1/2in wide on either side of your center piece . and then 1piece each 1/2in wide of mahog on either side of the maple to give you a total width of 3in stock. then mark out your headstock , nut blank , heel block etc so that the checks on your 2 outside pieces of mahog will not fall inside your cutout lines for the neck. This would be a 5 piece neck I would also make sure you have a nice flat glue joint using a jointer plane or ?? I use PRG 2 part plastic resin glue (amazom) which makes a vy hard joint , or titebond

Not suitable for a one piece neck $.02

_________________
Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I agree with Ken. You could resaw the material and use the good parts for necks with glued on pegheads. Common woodworking practice is to cut off 1 inch past where you see the end of a check, to account for the checking you don't see.

Thanks, guys!

The checks did have me second guessing if the pieces were stable enough, but apparently the blocks are quite old, so I'm hoping they've sort of "settled in" by now. I would (and still might) find some other use for them, but they're the only pieces of wood I have in anything close to neck sized dimensions.

They're about 2 3/8" wide across the face, and 2" thick. The way I've been thinking about turning them into necks is to rip them down the middle vertically, and then flip one half over so the grain is mirrored. Insert a quartersawn piece of some type of wood as a center laminate to make the sandwich 2 1/2"+ wide, and then glue it up. Once dry, I'd cut it down the middle again width-wise, and end up with a pair of 1" thick pieces with the same length and width. The top slice (with the most vertical grain) would be the neck shaft, and the bottom slice I'd use to make a stacked heel and the headstock.





If I calculated correctly (that's not a given, believe me ), I could cut the checked end off and still have enough length to make it work. Do you think it's a good plan, or would you still recommend finding a non-structural use for the mahogany?

Try it and see what happens . Lot of luthiery is trial and lots of errors

your plan should be a fine one, except, i would tend to laminate so the grain curves toward the center, not the outside of the neck.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I have had to sometimes cut as far as 6" past visible end grain checks to get to wood that won't split. You can apply solvent to wood to identify hidden cracks.