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So I picked up the zebrano yesterday. Weather's not letting me go outside and get really nice pictures of it, but I've taken a few anyway. Now I don't have the means to mill/resaw this stuff right now, but I am looking for some input on how to get the most out of what I have. Here's an overview pic of the wood for those interested.

Both boards are about 68" long, one's 7.25" wide, the other's 9.25" wide. They seem to be consecutive, off the same tree or close to, the wider board's slightly better quartered throughout, both very well quartered. Thickness is pretty much exactly 7/8", maybe a hair more, both faces planed, level and so near perfectly flat and straight as not to matter. I can quite easily fit 2 Jumbo sized guitars, and maybe an OM on the wider board (see picture here) but I don't think I could hope to get more than 2 sides on the other board. And no, they didn't have any more boards off the same log, or any more quartered zebrano at all, in fact.

Mostly, I'm not sure what to do about the two checks in the side of the narrower board. Look like this:


Don't seem to go in very deep, and there's plenty of room to trim stuff away there. There's a short (1.5") crack at the end of that same board, but again, excess width, easily avoided. The wider board has a bigger defect, a crack running just under 7" long (visible), 3.75" in from the more flatsawn side of the board:


That crack only just falls within a rough OM-ish sized guitar design I've got, grazing the upper bout as it were. Not a lot of room for joining error there.

So, the questions: Should I process the boards at all at this point, particularly deal with cracks in some way to stop them propagating? Cut them away, leave them alone, what? Is it feasible to get two sets out of 7/8" planed stock? Any way of getting 3 sides outta a 7.25" board 64" long? What to do with the 'remainder' of the larger board? Could do for a parlour sized back, but again, there's the sides issue. I suppose I could simply use it for a solidbody at some point in the future, if I don't turn it all into headstock overlays, although that might be pushing the 'wildness' a little. Maybe matching bridge/fingerboard/headstock. Who knows, eh?

[QUOTE=Mattia Valente] So I picked up the zebrano yesterday. Weather's not letting me go outside and get really nice pictures of it, but I've taken a few anyway. Now I don't have the means to mill/resaw this stuff right now, but I am looking for some input on how to get the most out of what I have. Here's an overview pic of the wood for those interested.

Both boards are about 68" long, one's 7.25" wide, the other's 9.25" wide. They seem to be consecutive, off the same tree or close to, the wider board's slightly better quartered throughout, both very well quartered. Thickness is pretty much exactly 7/8", maybe a hair more, both faces planed, level and so near perfectly flat and straight as not to matter. I can quite easily fit 2 Jumbo sized guitars, and maybe an OM on the wider board (see picture here) but I don't think I could hope to get more than 2 sides on the other board. And no, they didn't have any more boards off the same log, or any more quartered zebrano at all, in fact.

Mostly, I'm not sure what to do about the two checks in the side of the narrower board. Look like this:


Don't seem to go in very deep, and there's plenty of room to trim stuff away there. There's a short (1.5") crack at the end of that same board, but again, excess width, easily avoided. The wider board has a bigger defect, a crack running just under 7" long (visible), 3.75" in from the more flatsawn side of the board:


That crack only just falls within a rough OM-ish sized guitar design I've got, grazing the upper bout as it were. Not a lot of room for joining error there.

So, the questions: Should I process the boards at all at this point, particularly deal with cracks in some way to stop them propagating? Cut them away, leave them alone, what? Is it feasible to get two sets out of 7/8" planed stock? Any way of getting 3 sides outta a 7.25" board 64" long? What to do with the 'remainder' of the larger board? Could do for a parlour sized back, but again, there's the sides issue. I suppose I could simply use it for a solidbody at some point in the future, if I don't turn it all into headstock overlays, although that might be pushing the 'wildness' a little. Maybe matching bridge/fingerboard/headstock. Who knows, eh?[/QUOTE]
Mattia here is what I would do. First the 7.25 board 68 in long. I think you stated that after trimming the cracks on each end it would be 64" l. At that point I would cut it into 2- 32" pcs. Joint one edge true and rip to 5"+. Now you have to pc's 5"+ x 32" x 7/8". Re-sawn to approx 1/8" t. they should easily yield 2 sets of sides from each piece. On the wider piece I would crosscut into 3 pc's 22" long. Again before re-sawing joint the bookmatch edge so that is true and you would have very little to touch up before gluing backs together. Following the same procedure as the backs you could get two sets from each 22" piece even though they would be thinner than you used to buying they would still be very usable seeing as the "finished" thickness would be somewhere around .090 to .100. As for the back piece that just clears an OM flod it with cyano so it doesn't spread. Don't forget to seal the ends. Of coarse this all depends on a good re-saw setup. These are just my thoughts. Someone else my have a differant idea.Bobc38373.2617939815

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I concur with the zootman and his diagnosis. Without a good resaw your going to have a tough time getting 2 sets but if you get a good blade and fence it shouldn't give you too much trouble. Make sure you seal everything

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Right. Thanks for the tips! Unless I find someone locally who's experienced in resawing, I'll be saving these for the future day when I have space for a bandsaw (I'm already semi-settled on a Meber, although if I find another second-hand Italian bandsaw I'll get one of those. Have an Uncle with a large transport van that he drives from Italy to NL regularly, so that's a plus) and until after I've practiced on cheaper, easier, more common woods. Concensus seems to be rip it up, seal the ends up well, and then leave it alone.

As for sealing, I'll see if I can find an equivalent to 'Achor Seal' over here, but I'm not too optimistic. Any other homebrew recipes reccomended there?

You can use melted wax. I don't know what they call it out your way but parafin (spelling?) works.. the stuff they use for sealing jars. I've also heard of using latex paint though I haven't..

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Bob, your explanation about resawing makes a lot of sense... but I have a question.

Presumably you would want both edges to be parallel, and at least one face. Without a bohemoth of a jointer how do you get one face flat and square to the jointed edge. (thinking the flatter the edge the better / higher yeild you will get from resawing)

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Brock : If your face is already flat and you can joint the edge. It should be square to the face. Run piece through table saw so edges are parallel. Put face on fence again, joint the sawed edge, (Take off very little material, enough to make it smooth). You should now have two edges square to the face. If the face is not flat, you could level out face by hand (hand plane & scraper)or run through thickness sande. Then do the above. This one way you could do it.
If the piece is irregular in shape, cut on table saw first. Use a sled to get it perpendicular to grain. Then do the above.

Thanks Ron.

I understand all of that, but suppose you have a 12" x 3" x 48" board. How do you get the 12" face flat without a 12" jointer? A planer (or thickness sander) as I understand it will simply make the faces parallel, not necessarily flat.

I think the typical way to get wood flat and square is to joint one face, then put that face against the jointer's fence and joint an edge. Plane the entire thing (to get 2 parallel, and in this case flat surfaces) and joint the opposite edge.

So, again the question is without a huge jointer? How can you accomplish this?

Or am I just missing something obvious?

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Your not missing anything. You either need a 12 inch jointer or if you already have a thickness planer you can build a sled to lock the block in.

Ultimately it's easiest to just avoid anything thats not surfaced on both sides and flat unless you have an extra 5-10+K sitting around to buy a 12" jointer and a thickness planer

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Brock if you dont have at least one face flat then you do need a jointer. A thickness sander of a suface planer will not flatten wood. It will follow what ever dips or twists that are in the board to start with. The rollers may compress the wood but it will emerge with the same irregularities. In Mattia's case his woood is surfaced so what Ron stated will work fine.

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