Brazilian Mahogany

[Hank]

hi boys and girls

Hopefully someone can help with this one
I have a stick of Mahogany that I'd like to re-saw for backs and sides but it's not Quarter Sawn,

Can I use it for acoustic's ?
or should I use it for solid bodies?

On another note, Up untill now i"ve being working from my 30 year old stash of offcuts, pallets, old crates, beer vat lids, beams from job sites and old drawer fronts and it's worked for me.
anyway, released the prisoners and bought a few sets off Pete Curly, my girlfriend said I was smiling all the way home, i'm still smiling
Nice bloke and stunning timber


thanks in advance
Frank

[TallDad71]

Quartersawn gives you a lot of strength over crown sawn. If you put a bend in crown sawn wood it may hold forever but it is much more likely to crack down the grain lines when finished to 2.5 - 3mm. Crown would also be more likely to have great big clumps that just fall out. It really depends on how far of quarter sawn your wood is I guess.

If the acoustic you were going to build was for a strummer who always played with the back of the guitar against their beer belly then you could get away with using it. The belly would negate the need for the back to be at all musical, as it would absorb any vibrations that were being generated by the soundboard, so you could keep the wood thicker perhaps 4-5mm thick to minimise the risk of it cracking on the bend. Certainly the grain pattern would be much more interesting.

My best advice would be, don't. Acoustics take forever to build properly, why use second class ingredients?

[Hank]

thanks Tall
Yep hear what your saying, been there
I'll get some sets from the inside where it's closer to quarter and use the outer for electrics
I've finally got the bandsaw set up to re-saw and i'm cutting anything that'll give a set or two

thanks for the reply
Cheers Frank