Mountain maple - grain orientation

[gorazd]

I have obtained some maple boards, rift sawn and 1/4 sawn from one guy who builds wooden music instruments, guitars, etc...
Boards are around 10cm wide and 1,8cm thick...

There are some rounds in grain... Are these places on boards OK or should I avoid them?
 I have over 30cm clean grain between them on some boards so for 5piece turkish construction - I think will be enough long.

[davidjw]

The dimensions sound good, but I believe the wood should be plain sawn.  This will resist shear stress better.  I think slight waves in the grain should be ok, but preferably kept out of the sal and used in the kasan or near the grip, pin knots are not so good anywhere though.

[BowEd]

Plain sawn for stability?

[davidjw]

Yes indeed it will be more stable, Adam's book mentions that edge and bias grain bows were difficult to stabilize.  I think plain sawn is also said to resist the shear stress between the sinew and horn best, and will be easier to steam bend without cracking (though this won't be as important for 5 piece construction).

[gorazd]

Yes indeed it will be more stable, Adam's book mentions that edge and bias grain bows were difficult to stabilize.  I think plain sawn is also said to resist the shear stress between the sinew and horn best, and will be easier to steam bend without cracking (though this won't be as important for 5 piece construction).

I will try rift sawn one  ...  I dont have plain one to try
It is very hard to obtain this wood - one guy paid 10.000 EUR for 1m3 log this year in auction ... came from Madeira to Slovenia to buy the log 

The guy who builds   music instruments ( and sold these board to me for almost free ) uses only rift and 1/4 sawn - because of grain look and I think more easy to bend it uniformly


For plain sawn:
I will Try to get the plain sawn black locust -  I will cut fresh black locust log and try to chop it pieces