Thanks HatchA, Scott D and nativenoobowyer86! Yeah, the grain has islands, run-offs and is far from parallel on the elm. I did a bend test on the excess strip and it bent pretty far without breaking, so I glued it up and gave it a shot. No splinters yet
![Grin ;D](http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/Smileys/default/grin.gif)