King Billy Pine as Bracewood

[vandenboom]

What a coindidence! I thought yesterday of putting up a question on suitabiilty of King Billy for bracing & just saw the same question for West Red Cedar.
I have a 1m plank of very stiff tight grain King Billy and was wondering if anyone has any experience with this.
Frank

[kiwigeo]

If possible Id be looking at making up a multi piece top out of the stuff rather than using it for bracing

[Bob Connor]

I wouldn't use it.

It may be relatively stiff but it won't be nearly as stiff as Red Spruce which I don't reckon you'll beat in the stiffness to weight stakes..

[xray]

i agree, dont do it to avoid dissapointment. i dont think its possible to find king billy that isn't close grained but in comparison to other timer such as spruce, you would be mad to use it because it isn't really that stiff when sawn down to smaller sizing for braces. I think you should still test the stuff for stiffness though. do an experiment with scales and spruce king billy and wr cedar evferything the same and pull scales down untill the timber snaps and record the findings. i would say that a 40cm length would give you interesting results.

[Clancy]

Joining the rest and saying don't do it.
I like & use it as a soundboard on carved tops, but used bunya (had to be an aussie timber) or spruce (preferred) as the bracing.

[sebastiaan56]

What a coindidence! I thought yesterday of putting up a question on suitabiilty of King Billy for bracing & just saw the same question for West Red Cedar.

Frank

Hey Frank, I was going to put up a thread on Radiata for bracing but have never had the guts..... Seriously Ive used Kauri Pine with some success as well.

[vandenboom]

...thanks everyone-got the message. But it will be interesting to the testing at some stage.
I need some spruce bracewood. I have managed to do 6 guitars with the spruce & mahogany billets that came in the 2 kits I bought from LMI when I started a couple of years go. Who do the australians purchase this from? Australian Tonewoods, someone else local or OS?

I bought a 3m plank of 9 x 2 spruce from Matthews timber (Melbourne) a while ago, and have used it for a couple of tops, but it is not real stiff.

Frank

[graham mcdonald]

Gilet Guitars/Guitarwoods in Sydney will sell you as much sitka as you want for bracing. There are doubtless people in the US who will sell you the very fashionable Red spruce for bracing, but the postage makes it rather silly as a one-off purchase.

Of course it does rather depend on what you want to build...