Hand Splitting Braces
Source: Guitar Bracing
Hand Splitting Guitar Braces:
Whether you purchase you bracing stock from a guitar wood supplier or find your own source of wood either at a specialty lumber company or saw mill, you will want to take a bit of extra time to hand-split this wood when making bracing stock.
Even though the stock can appear to look great, with nice, vertical grain, looks can be deceiving. There is often grain run-out in these pieces of wood and we need to eliminate that for our brace wood.
I did receive some nice brace wood a while back from a violin supply house and to my surprise and delight, the wood billet was hand split and ready for me to split my brace cuttings.
Tools Required:
Froe
Wooden Mallet
Chisel
Preparation For Hand-Splitting:
Hand splitting is actually quite an easy operation, if you know the proper methods and steps to use.
Step 1: if you are splitting your brace wood directly off a bigger billet of wood or a piece of dimension stock wood, find a very stable pounding surface. In the center of a table or work bench will not do. You need to be either over a bench support leg or just do it on a concrete floor slab. We can’t be dealing with a bounce-back when using sharp instruments.
Step 2: Place the Froe at right angles to the wood end grain. For example if you have a piece of spruce that is 2″ x 4″ x 18″ nominal, and the grain is running vertically (from face to face), set the from about half-way or in the center of the 2″ dimension. You will be dealing with a bit of waste wood here, but it is worth is to get nice run-out free bracing.
Ultimate Guitar Repair Tip: You can make your own froe. Just take a piece of 3/16″ x 3/4″ or 1″ mild steel bar stock (you can pick this up an any well stocked hardware store), and grind an edge on it with a grinder. It does not need to be razor sharp as we are not really cutting with this, just splitting. If you wish you can purchase one as well, just follow the link above.
Step 3: Hold the froe vertically and give it a sharp rap, in the center of the wood. Keep hitting it until you start to split the wood. Usually with some twisting of the froe you can get the piece to pop loose. These pieces, which are approximately 1″ thick x 4″ wide will be the approximate brace height you will be working with.
Step 4: The chisel is now used to split the width of each brace. Again go with a larger dimension, considering there will be some waste to deal with. Just hold the chisel up right and give it a sharp rap with the wooden mallet. Each piece should pop off with ease.
Step 5: All that is left is to final machine the bracing to size. I prefer to do this with a planer or drum sander and the result will be great run-out free wood bracing for your guitar.
Tags: Guitar Bracing, hand split guitar braces, how to hand split braces, how to make a guitar
