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I picked up some very inexpensive black walnut to practice resawing, thicknessing on my new sander and bending with my new silicone heating blanket. I figure I would try bending this inexpensive stuff before I tackle the figured african mahogany or the east indian rosewood that I have. I think I would also feel much better about routing my first binding channels on something I didnt care too much about. That said I like the look of the walnut and would like to complete a guitar with it. What issues are there with flat sawn walnut? I understand that it swells and shrinks more with changes in humidity when cut this way than if quartersawn but it it seems to me that I have seen quite a few back and side sets for sale that are similiar. Would you build with it?

Thanks
Warren

As long as its good and dry and acclimated to your shop it should work fine I would think. It may not be a bad idea to take your shop humidity down to around 30% or so for several days prior to joining since swelling is much better than shrinkage especially after joining and this may be accentuated with the flat sawn stock vs quartered. I would join and put on the centerseam reinforcement within a day or two of each other then proceed on.

I build mainly rosewood and mahogany flatpicking/bluegrass guitars but my favorite guitar is my personal guitar in curly walnut/adi. It is very punchy in the mids and highs and the bass side is actually very nicely focused and not muddy at all. All said I would build with walnut again in a heartbeat. Best of luck and I'm sure it will turn out good.

SR

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

Just to add another opinion....walnut is readily available in much better quality and is relatively cheap. For a trip to the lumber store, $12, and 15 minutes of re-sawwing, you can have a more stable back. If this piece had some rare figure or was a rare species, it may be worth the risk but Walnut moves around more than a lot of other typical guitar woods (like IRW or mahagany).

If you built with it and never exposed it to large swings of humidity, it would probably be fine. Maybe some uneven swelling would cause the back to be a bit wavy. But I don't see much upside to using it and little downside to getting something better.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

Thanks for the help guys. I think I'll go ahead and build with it. Im going to do a couple of OLF SJ's. The other in EIR. I'll use the walnut for practice.

Warren.

I love walnut. I have built with some flatsawn in the past. The humidity suggestion given by SR is good advice. Take your time while bending...my experience has been vey positive when bending walnut both by hand and with a fox style bender. I still use the lightbulb version. I just haven't gotten around to getting a heat blanket yet.
Build with it absolutely, even if the finished guitar stays with you, you will like it!!

Once you get a finish on what you have there, it will dance!!
David

I actually just finished bending the sides. I built a bender similiar to Colin S's and watched Todd Stock's videos. It was far from graceful but the sides came out great. Thought I might try making solid linings out of the walnut as it seems quite light and Ive got a lot of it.

Thanks Warren.