A very simple light box for checking seams

[John Link]

Yes you did, Dave. And yes, I had read them. And yes, yes, I had forgotten. Looks like Brian rates the torrified top you have as quite good, though not at the very top of all the Stika he has tested.

[Dave Bagwill]

In a sense, the test did not really tell us anything about the efficacy of the torrefecation.
If I'd had Brian do a before/after test, that might have been more useful. I have my own set of deflection testing jigs - copied from Brian - but i don't have the sophisticated $700 software that he uses, so can't really do my own before/after comparisons.
OTOH it is a good piece of Spruce; anything above a final Q score of about 50 will yield an excellent top if handled properly.

I'd like to get a nice billet of italian/Carpatian/European spruce and have someone slice it up for me - wonder if we could do a 'group' purchase and save some $?

[ken cierp]

International Violin --- at one time they had European Spruce guitar sound boards for a very reasonable price.

[Tim Benware]

I bought a beautiful piece of Carpathian here:

http://www.oldworldtonewood.com/catalog ... h=29_54_88

[Dave Bagwill]

Drool.

Here's my take on jointing torrefied Sitka - this is my second top and both have been very difficult.
I tried using a shooting board and a well setup plane; I bought that Veritas shooting sander - both of which work well on other wood. Not so much on this stuff.

What did the trick was first, the light box to show exactly what was what; then I reverted to something I used early on and it worked very well - chuck up a piece of flat material (3/4" mdf etc) tall enough to support the sides but giving plenty of room to grip them as well - and a straightedge (I use the veritas straightedge, a tip from Tim Benware long ago, thanks Tim) with sandpaper glued to it - into a vise.

A few rubs, turn around and put over the light box, mark lightly where you need to concentrate, a few more rubs and Bob's your uncle. For this torrefied stuff it is the only method I've found that works cleanly and easily - I do not have a jointer but even if I did, this wood is splintery and any snipe at all is going to make a bad day.