Shane - this is great ! I will be calling you hopefully tomorrow to put in an order - or do you prefer PM or email ?

Your tutorials / show and tell are excellent !



Do you all split Western Cedar for braces as well ? or would you use the sawn method ?


Thanks !

Shane,

That is exactly what I have been looking for. Thank you for taking the time to go into such detail and to include such clear pictures.

Kathy Somerville

Shane I noticed you saw off the sap wood. Do you consider it inferior?

For Split Bracewood, as has been mentioned before, you need to split in halves. This is important because to do otherwise will likely result in the split crossing grain lines. By splitting in halves there is equal resistance on either side of your splitting tool so the wood separates along a grain line. So, for hand splitting, I start in the same place, a split wedge:



Then I collect my tools of choice for this operation, a wooden mallet I made for timber framing and a small hatchet:



Next, I make my first split, halving the billet:



Following that, it is just a series of halves until you get dimensions you are looking for, something like this:



Once you get near the sizes you want you will have something like this:



This is just over 3/4" thick and 1 1/2" wide. From here you can either true up two faces by hand plane or on a jointer, or you can continue splitting. A word of caution though. If you continue to split down from here, it is a good idea to cut the stock to shorter lengths as there is less force now holding the split to a grain line and the splits can start to wonder. Just pay close attention as you go and try this process on some lumber yard spruce first.

A couple of thoughts on bracewood:

1) This is a structural component in the guitar and as such I believe that this is not the place to compromise.

2) So, what does "compromise" mean? Well, the tradition is that bracestock should be free of runout and perfectly quartered. The runout I can agree with but tests, science and history do not prove out the "perfectly on quarter" component. Roger Siminoff has advocated for years, largely based on some old instruments that he has had in his hands and tests he has conducted, that bracestock does not need to be, nor should be quartered. Somogyi has show that in many cases flat sawn wood, and in some cases, rift sawn wood is as stiff or stiffer than quarter sawn wood. So the most important thing one needs to do is understand "how stiff" one wants their top to be and what they can do to adjust to that stiffness. Maybe less stiff braces have a place with a very stiff top and vis versa.

3) But, since we all like well quartered tops, it makes sense, from a stability perspective anyways, that well quartered braces will have some benefit. But I leave that discussion to others with more experience than I.

4) I have concluded that I can get bracestock that is very well machined using my saw method, so that is what I use for myself. I pay attention to the details and I think I produce wood that easily matches and often betters split bracestock. But others enjoy the use of hand tools in producing this wood and if done with care and attention, one would be hard pressed to argue that split braces are not as good as you can get!

I hope this is of some value in answering some questions and I hope this thread will allow for more discussion to answer any questions outstanding.

Thanks

Shane