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Old 08-14-2018, 11:43 AM
Alan Carruth Alan Carruth is offline
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Quarter sawing is less important with hardwoods than softwoods, and cedro is botanically a hardwood so far as I know. Also, quarter sawing mostly affects the cross grain stiffness of the wood, not the strength. In fact, most woods show their highest resistance to splitting when they are skew cut, with the rings at 45 degrees to the surface. The medullary rays do help some in quartered stock as opposed to flat cut, though.

What a perfect quarter cut in softwoods gives you is the highest possible cross grain stiffness for that particular piece of wood, and the most resistance to cupping across the grain. Although high cross grain stiffness is generally assumed to be desirable in a top, there is some reason to think it's not all that important much of the time. IMO it matters more in a guitar with a wide top, like a Jumbo, if it matters at all. At any rate, a quick review of some of my test numbers comparing cross-grain and long-grain stiffness suggests that the hardwoods with the lowest cross stiffness start out about where the high cross stiffness softwoods leave off. I've got softwood samples that are 65 times as stiff along as across the grain, and most tops run between 10:1 and 20:1. Hardwoods seem to run 5:1 to 7:1, and I've got a couple of samples of quartered oak, with those really strong medullary rays, at closer to 2:1. I don't recall testing any cedro for cross stiffness, so I can't help you directly. At any rate, you'd need to test a sample from that board, as it varies a lot.
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