3 piece Pau Ferro back?

[gilles]

Looking for advice and opinions please...

I recently bought a beautiful piece of Pau Ferro which is about 6 inches wide. I was thinking about making a mandolin or a ukulele, but have been considering using it for a guitar back, but gluing 3 pieces to make the back. The lower bout width would be around 15 inches...

Is a 3-piece back a common thing? Am I asking for trouble?

[Craig Wilson]

Nothing wrong with a 3 piece back. A Google Image search will turn up lots of examples.
You might have to adjust how you clamp the glue-up to keep the joints from sliding. Reinforce both joints as you would a center joint.

If you've never worked with Pau Ferro before, be just careful with the dust.
I used it for the first (and only) time a couple of years ago. I developed open weeping sores on exposed skin and eye/nose/lung irritation just from scraping and hand sanding the sides of the box.
Now I'm sensitive to all wood dust, even spruce. I've had to upgrade my DC and shop vac to HEPA filters and wear a respirator for hand sanding ever since.

[Fathand]

Every Martin D35 has a 3 piece back, they work just fine and can be quite decorative.
The centre piece can be a wedge like the D35 or a wide straight filler strip. You can also do a 4 piece back by adding the pieces cut from the waist to to opposite side of the lower bout.

I had an Osage Orange board that dressed out to just over 6 inches so I made up an inch wide strip of Birdseye Maple with walnut veneer on either side so I could make a 13.5" wide size 0. Also used for the end graft. The strip was made thick enough that I can get a few slices off it for future projects.

[redir]

I have made several guitars with 4 piece backs. You could do the center wedge style 3 piece back like Martin did.

[printer2]

Did a five piece back.