jerry need help = ..= about the heel~~~

[jerryyanpu]

hi every one ~!
i got lots of help here! thanks !
there is a new problem~~
i bought a neck blank which is sapele ,35" quartersawn, however ,i found it is not enough for a whole neck including the head ,neck ,and heel in my classical guitar plan=..= casue it is not thick enough (23MM）。。。。then i found some austriaia blackwood ,the grain going well ,looks quiet dry...

so the question is , can i stack different wood to make the heel block? if it is ok ,what i need take care?

thanks everyone ~
Jerry Yan~

[kiwigeo]

I've stacked different woods on occasions...but you need to be aware of grain directions in the different pieces on the heel block. Sometimes you'll ended up with grain orientations that don't allow for easy working of the heel block with chisels and scrapers (ie youll get tear out in some of the layers of the stacked heel and not in others).

[jerryyanpu]

I've stacked different woods on occasions...but you need to be aware of grain directions in the different pieces on the heel block. Sometimes you'll ended up with grain orientations that don't allow for easy working of the heel block with chisels and scrapers (ie youll get tear out in some of the layers of the stacked heel and not in others).

thanks for ur reply~!
yeah ,i have checked the grain directions,the piece of blackwood just like quartersawn ,so i stack it with the same grain directions of the sapele ,it is that work?
cheers ~!
jerry yan

[Jeremy D]

Did try stacking the sapele like the picture below?

Untitled.gif (1.61 KiB) Viewed 9647 times

[kiwigeo]

I've stacked different woods on occasions...but you need to be aware of grain directions in the different pieces on the heel block. Sometimes you'll ended up with grain orientations that don't allow for easy working of the heel block with chisels and scrapers (ie youll get tear out in some of the layers of the stacked heel and not in others).

thanks for ur reply~!
yeah ,i have checked the grain directions,the piece of blackwood just like quartersawn ,so i stack it with the same grain directions of the sapele ,it is that work?
cheers ~!
jerry yan

Blackwood and sapele should go ok together and if all the wood is quarter sawn then you should be ok. Some of the mahoganies get a bit cranky with grain direction.

If youre going to glue on an end cap on the heel and youve got a mixture of light and dark coloured woods making up the heel block then think about how all the different layers will look together. I stack up the blocks and the end cap material and visually check how they look.....its purely asthetics but it's something I always think about at start of a build.

[jerryyanpu]

Did try stacking the sapele like the picture below?

Untitled.gif

ty ,i tried it ,but still not enough.....this is why i consider use other wood= ..=

[jerryyanpu]

I've stacked different woods on occasions...but you need to be aware of grain directions in the different pieces on the heel block. Sometimes you'll ended up with grain orientations that don't allow for easy working of the heel block with chisels and scrapers (ie youll get tear out in some of the layers of the stacked heel and not in others).

thanks for ur reply~!
yeah ,i have checked the grain directions,the piece of blackwood just like quartersawn ,so i stack it with the same grain directions of the sapele ,it is that work?
cheers ~!
jerry yan

Blackwood and sapele should go ok together and if all the wood is quarter sawn then you should be ok. Some of the mahoganies get a bit cranky with grain direction.

If youre going to glue on an end cap on the heel and youve got a mixture of light and dark coloured woods making up the heel block then think about how all the different layers will look together. I stack up the blocks and the end cap material and visually check how they look.....its purely asthetics but it's something I always think about at start of a build.

thank u very much ,u gave me lots of advices!!~~

[mhunte12]

Hi Jerry

I did this (through necessity) as the wood that I wanted to make my neck from (Tasmanian Black Hearted Sassafras & Yellow Box). I was very careful in making sure that the surfaces were very very flat before gluing, and that everything remained square when clamped up. Overall I was really happy with the outcome, and its been very stable so far. Good luck with your own project!

20 bits of wood in this photo (in hindsight, I could have got away with using 1 piece of Yellow Box down the centre):


Cut heel to template:


Roughly finished, ready to attach to neck and rasp to rough shape:


Test fit up, ready to rasp:


...and in various states of finish:

[routout]

That is awesome I like the effect it gives it will definitely suit the guitar .