A No-Nonsense Guide to Resawing Wood. Bookmatch Your Own Guitar Tops!

[@MKYCmusic]

Looks like an owl the other way up. Stunning piece.

[@robertr4193]

That book matched top does look quite nice. The burl patches really came out nicely.

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

Yeah it's a lovely top, it'll be a great guitar some day!

[@Birkguitars]

I just bought myself a BS400 which has a slightly deeper cut so that I can comfortably do a nine inch resaw without maxing out the machine. Seán resawed a piece of figured myrtle for me when I was at Crimson as it was far too nerve wracking for me. He did a superb job allowing me to create a carve top and a drop top from what was a seriously expensive piece of timber. Nerves of steel and skill to match.

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

I had/have a BS400 at home, great bandsaw! I'd recommend looking into upgrading the guide bearings if you can, I alwasy felt the stock ones held that bandsaw back... Hope all is well!

[@robokeo]

you legend, thanks.

[@michaelmenkes7233]

Here's the reason I square the 4th edge. the bookmatching is in both directions, leaving you the option of matching from either edge or expanding your book matching off three or 4 pieces, not just 2. I resawed a neck blank into two bookmatched fretboards like this just by cutting down the middle of the resawn piece and gluing both bookmatched edges. In this case he got really really lucky with the result. Looks like an owl to me. The other reason is with the 4th squared edge his centering technique will not suffer from a rough bottom edge.

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

Very good point. It can also make gluing easier. On pieces like this oak, it wouldn't have been practical to square the 4th edge though, as a lot of material would have been lost and I knew this bookmatch was going to be great. You can always bookmatch the other side still, although it's much more work now to ensure it stays lined up.

[@michaelmenkes7233]

@@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars its like the surprise toy inside your Kinder easter egg, and yeah I go that based on the shape of the slab it had some natural guitar body shape going on. I had to learn how to double-book match because my bandsaw has only 5" clearance...so now its a feature...

[@Furtheronmusic]

Definitely looks like an owl.

[@tahoemike5828]

I too, see an owl.

[@JohnB1956]

That's some piece of wood. Has the green extraction bin been emptied lately?

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

We are currently trying to teach the green bins to empty themselves. It's not going well

[@piotrkarel]

Fantastic! A quick question, would you use any bookmatched wood for a drop-top (within reason of course)? I'm thinking woods that are not typically used for guitar building, but can look stunning, like australian eucalyptus types of woods?

[@AwenLutherieCustomGuitars]

Absolutely! If it looks good, use it, why not? It won't make any real noticable difference to tone so don't worry about that!

[@piotrkarel]

​@@AwenLutherieCustomGuitarsthanks Seán. I was more concerned about the oily nature of those species or what happens if they try to warp 👍