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I cut the side profile on my nearly finished Honduras Mahogany neck and got a bow, concave on the fret side.
I’ve never encountered this before. I have made about 40 necks using a stack of old Mahogany.
The neck is flat-sawn. The humidity was around 80% when I cut it four days ago. Today it is 40%.
The off-cut piece is pretty bowed, the middle of the neck is bowed about 1/32”.

I plan to wait to see what happens during the next week or two.
Should I crank the truss rod to near flat, or leave it loose?
Any advice is appreciated.

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Instead of cranking the truss rod down, it might be more useful to clamp the fretboard face down on something strong and flat, like the top of a table saw or workbench. Is there more wood to remove from the back of the neck or is it final carved?

Have you even carved the neck yet?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I have not carved the neck.

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I have not carved the neck. Perhaps this will relieve some of the stress?

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Definitely do the final carve then see where the neck wants to settle in.

you're (obviously) dealing with wood...anytime you start making rips in wood you roll the dice as to what's going to happen...only a 1/32" bow? that's nothing...let this be a lesson about needing to approach final dimensions as opposed to just going for it full tilt and ripping to the final dimension leaving no room for flattening after the woods moves from internal stresses...

the following is a worst case scenario that pretty much isn't going to exist in lutherie: take a `1x8 piece of anything and rip it right down the middle...the odds of both pieces being straight afterwards are about 0...sometimes one side goes insane and the other stays pretty straight...sometimes they both go insane and that's just life (and a lesson about ordering materials close to final dimensions as opposed to ordering stuff and planning to get 2 rips out of it)

sometime back Taylor had a video around detailing how their machines mill up necks by taking multiple passes and slowly getting to the finished product...point being the awareness of movement in wood as you start removing some so take it in stages until you get to a final product...

Or create new ones. Carve the neck, then we'll see.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Thanks guys!
I’ll let it sit for a week with a loose truss rod and let it do it’s thing before carving.
This is the first time I’ve seen this with my Mahogany stash and it frightened me.

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