Red Gum/Amberwood/Satin Walnut tough wood

[Herman]

Currently I'm making a 12 string Jumbo.

This is the B/S set. Red Gum. It feels very soft, walnut like, but it has a surprisingly ringy taptone.
So I was very expectant to make this one. Seemed easy wood in the first place.


Today I bent the sides. 2mm/0.078". Tough work, so I did wet it and with the iron on max eventually it bent. But both side cracked on the edge of the core wood and the sap wood.



The wet area is CA glue, but the gaps are quite wide
After little consideration I decide not to go on with these.
I'll get me another pair of sides, or a plank of this wood.

Lesson: Not everything is what it seems. (obvious already)

[John Parchem]

Well that is too bad, It looks like not so much of a crack than a separation. Some wood just does not want to cooperate.

[Herman]

For the record:
This is not Red Gum from the Australian Eucalyptus family, but Liquidambar styraciflua. Called American Sweet Gum or Ambertree.

[Dave Bagwill]

I got the surprise of my life when Michael and I were thinning his Port Orford Cedar top in the drum sander.
He put the wood through, I was on the outfeed side and took it out and tapped it.
It broke along the grain from top to bottom.
Gads. Things are not always like they look.