How did I do?

[DC]

The last picture is looking at the end of the board(end grain). At the very least I should be able to use the top half of the board, shouldn't I?

[Marc St Louis]

I see.  I wasn't reading that pic right.  Yes it could work

[DC]

Whew! That little chunk of wood cost $60. I didn't want it standing in the corner.

[willie]

DC
how deep is that split? is it truly a split, perhaps the rest of the board was actually split all the way through and you bought the remnant?

You could use that split to guide you in cutting your ripping and backings such that you hardly have any runout at all. The run out of the grain due to any spiraling could be repaired/reoriented.

[DC]

It's about 1 1/2" deep and goes about 3/4's of the way along the board. It has a slight bend to it but it does angle across the board slightly. I will probably use it as a guide but I want to study it a bit first. On the right side of the second picture the grain follows the edge quite closely so there is a bit of butt flare or something going on.