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I have a board of Sapele that's 12" wide, 7/8" thick and 7 feet long that I am going to have resawed (or resawn?) next week, to use for back and sides. I'm just curious, what thickness should I tell them to saw the plates?

3/16"

Thanks. How many plates should a piece that thick yield?

That depends on the blade, the saw and just as important the person doing the cutting. If it is done right you should get 4 (min) plates from a 7/8" thick board.

I agree with Brian, depends on your saw blade. Usually you can resaw one slice per 1/4". So 6/4 material yields three guitar bookmatches.

7/8" is cutting it close unless you have a thin-kerf blade. From 3/4 material I usually get two nice pieces and a third thicker piece, so with any luck a 7/8 can conceivably yield two sets. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. But hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised with your results.

One last thing to consider, the faces have to be practically sanded or planed perfectly flat. Otherwise you have to cut a bit thicker to get the first and last pieces to sand out. Good luck.

From my experience,it is too close to try and get 4 pieces out of a 7/8" board.
3/16" x 4 = 3/4" plus 3 saw kerfs.
No matter how good you are there is always a little "wander" etc.
Also as Bruce said the board has to be made dead flat before any sawing takes place.A jointer is the best way to do this in my opinion, and that will reduce the thickness of the board further. After you cut the boards into 24" sections lay it on a known flat surface like a table saw or jointer bed to see how flat it is.
Sides should be no problem because they can be cut a little thinner.
BradBrad Goodman38566.5613773148

Actually, both sides have already been planed flat. I think that 3 plates are probably the max also, but the people doing the sawing are professionals and I'm sure they'll get what they can. I just wanted to get an idea of what it may yield. I'm also trying to decide in what configuration to cut the boards. I had thought about marking it well enough to realign everything later and having them saw it as is. Or should I go ahead and saw it off in 34" and 24" chunks. Like I said, its 7 feet long and 12" wide, so I'm trying to determine which way would waste less. ThanksJeremiahB.38566.5802546296

Three is the max. Here is another thought. Unless you are resawing a quarter sawn board you are likely to be sorly disapointed in the resulting book match you get. Been there and done that!

I disagree! I can get four slices with a Woodslicer or equivalent blade, 1/32" kerf. That makes all the difference in the world. I still have room for a little sanding in between cuts if needed.

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I love this forum. There is always wisdom and enthusiam in abundance. Jeremiah, you are lucky this board is Sapele. I always want my boards rough cut, so I get my full thickness.

I generally cut to guitar length and width, then I head for the abrasive planer. I kiss both sides and see where I am and try to completely clear the outside pieces before cutting. This one procedure alone has made resawing a joy. It just helps when everything is flat and pretty.

Jointed edges are great at least on the bottom of the piece, but I like the top too, for one reason. My marking of cuts done near the very end. There is a cool way to mark a board perfectly for resawing too. I learned it somewhere along the way.

TAke a piece of small wood, top cutoff about six inches long is good. Then using a ruler, mark it every half inch or 3/8 inch along the side, it doesn't matter. You determine how many cuts you want to attempt, then put the homemade ruler across the board edge at an angle, leaving the number of marks you want to cut, within the board sides. Marking the edge of the board of course.

You can then use a pencil as a guage and run that mark to the end of the board. So on say 6/4 you end up with five marks, then five parallel marks on the top edge of the board. These become your cut lines. Stray over one of them, you know you have to make adjustments for the remaining cuts.

The thickness sander takes it from there getting you consistent thickness pieces for the guitar. It's work, but it's rewarding to take planks and make guitar wood. Did anyone see LMI's big ol' bandsaw behind Chris's picture?

You should be able to get 4 sets out of that board. But like Don W. said it depends on the blade kerf and how flat the board is to begin with. If it has to be trued up first then all bets are off.

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Don't hold this against him, but I'm good buddies w/ Dale M (4 posts up). You should go through his shop and see his bandsaw. It makes LMI's whimper.

Good to see you here, Dale!

Steve

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Thanks for all of the good advice. I'm having this done at a professional woodworking shop, so I'm not sure what the kerf is on the blade. I thought about buying the risers, blade, and setting up my bandsaw to do this, but I only have the one board and at this point I'm not planning to buy a lot of wood in lumber form anytime soon, so I didn't feel it was worth the time and money. The board is one of the quartersawn sapele boards that Woodcraft had on sale a few months back. They have a nice Laguna bandsaw at this shop and they do very good work. The guy also said that it would be $15 to resaw the board into 3/16" slices, so that sounded like a pretty good deal. How does red spruce sound with sapele? Is that a good combo?JeremiahB.38567.3268402778

Red Spruce is good with anything Jeremiah. Of course Sapele is a prized tonewood too. You have a winning combo there.

You know we want a follow-up to see how you made out with the resawing.

Resawing is a learned skill like anything else. Me and the others here have been through every brand, every metal treatment to bands known to man. ... and some through multiple saws...

Finally you find something that works well and works consistently. In the end, that's what matters satisfaction with machines and materials and methods.

Then you go build a guitar. I've seen yours, they are high caliber. Will the name Jeremiah House someday be revered as we do, say the name Stradivari today, who knows?

All we can do is our best. We have to be happy with our best.