dreadnaught 3 piece austaralian lacewood

[ernie]

I would like to build a 3 piece dred from oz lacewood. It was cut to 3.5 mm. Have never worked with this back wood, plan to do a 15 ft back radius with either mahogany or sycamore braces. Not sure what to bring it down to 2.5 mm?? wood seems very dense . Anyone out there made a dred or OM ,?? Read that sanding and filling can be a chore scrape, and lightly sand , or run it through a thickness sander 1 st to about 2.8 mm ??

[vandenboom]

I would like to build a 3 piece dred from oz lacewood. It was cut to 3.5 mm. Have never worked with this back wood, plan to do a 15 ft back radius with either mahogany or sycamore braces. Not sure what to bring it down to 2.5 mm?? wood seems very dense . Anyone out there made a dred or OM ,?? Read that sanding and filling can be a chore scrape, and lightly sand , or run it through a thickness sander 1 st to about 2.8 mm ??

Have made dreads & OM's with various Blackwoods - 15' back radius. Usually take them down to about 2.4mm but use tap tone as a guide. Use mahogany or spruce bracing - basically use the popular 4-brace arrangement and once again, tap tone as a guide when carving.
I use thickness sander with 80 grit to take it to around 2.8mm, then 120grit to take it to final thickness.
Re being cut to 3.5mm, I wouldn't want it any less if you want a good glue joint, though backstrips and rear reinforcing strip can compensate for that.
All the best.
Frank

[ernie]

Thanks. I check for tap tones on tops. But what is your criteria for a tap tone for the back? thanks again ernie

[vandenboom]

Thanks. I check for tap tones on tops. But what is your criteria for a tap tone for the back? thanks again ernie

Pretty much the same, just like to hear it sing and have some sustain. All part of the mystery. Frank

[Allen]

Lacewood is a pretty ambiguous term when It comes to Aussie woods. There are heaps of them that display that sort of figure. The most common locally is Silky Oak which is relatively soft compared to others like lace sheoak, bull oak etc. Silky Oak would require a fair bit of pore filling where as lace sheoak doesn't have any pores to speak of.

Couldn't give you sizes to consider without knowing what you are referring to.