Necks cut from a single piece have "short grain" in the headstock. This weakens the neck substantially.
One of the ways around this problem (and it also has the benefit of using less neck stock) is to cut a scarf joint from the same board, reverse the piece, and glue it on at the headstock angle. This gives you "long grain" on both the neck and the head stock. Provided you have a good glue joint these are much stronger than normal 1 piece construction.
Another way to deal with the weaker neck due to short grain on single piece necks is to use a backstrap of veneer behind the headstock. This also reinforces the headstock area of the neck considerably on single piece necks. (This is how I do it).
Despite the fact that both the scarf joint and the back strap are much stronger than a 1 piece neck there are bazillions of 1 piece necks that never have any problems.
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