I've always felt that I had the uncanny ability to read wood. Before we lay open a board or glue up a soundboard or backboard set, I test my "magic" powers to evaluate the outside of the wood and try to predict what the grain and figure will look like once the board is carved or shaped and the grain is laid open. Usually I'm close. But every once in a while Mother Nature outsmarts me, and we discover natural anomalies that prevent us from selling the board as an A, AA, or AAA grade. Aside from natural discolorations and blemishes, I've discovered insect remains in their little burrowed holes, blind holes in maple that are the remnants of bung holes drilled into the tree to drain maple sap for syrup and plugged back up by bungs left to be grown over by subsequent tree growth, parts of barb wire fencing, nails, bullets, buckshot, and more. Of course, boards with these physical defects are either discarded, used for test instruments or find their way to campfires. (I love camping with music friends and watching their expressions as defective soundboards or necks are thrown into the fire. My wife, Rosemary, and I, and Lynn and Amy Dudenbostel had the pleasure of giggling about that while feeding a campfire in the Great Smoky Mountains.) The boards with natural discolorations and blemishes, however, go into our Seconds box to be sold at festivals or made available to those luthiers who visit our shop looking for bargains. So, from time to time we end up with some soundboards and backboards that we can't put in our kits or sell as first-line boards.

We have about two dozen soundboards and backboards in our Seconds box, and they are available at very good prices (50% discount). The Seconds are carved to the same graduations as our regular boards, and aside from their cosmetic blemishes, they are perfectly usable. In most cases, these blemishes are invisible when the boards are stained and shaded. There are also a few boards where there was a machining flaw in the figure on both halves of the board, but all of our Seconds are usable or easily repairable. If you are interested in seeing our list of Seconds, drop me an email and put "SECONDS" in the subject line, and I'll send you a list. And, if you see something on the list you would like to see a photo of, I'll be glad to email you one. Please note that because of the price reduction and handling costs, Seconds are sold as is and are not returnable.

Rim bending is not a project that stirs every luthier's spirit. Even for those of us seasoned benders, we occasionaly get a piece of wood that has a mind of its own and either doesn't want to bend the way we want it to or cracks when and where we don't want it to. One way to get closer to good results is to ensure that the grain of the wood (as seen from the end of the wood) lays as flat as possible as shown in "A." Grain on the bias ("B") is fine as long as it doesn't approach grain going across the ribs as in "C." Ribs that have grain in the "C" orientation are very difficult, if not impossible, to bend.

If you end up with light-to-mild cracking across the ribs, it is better to try to close the gap first rather than just trying to sand it out. Successful closure can be done with cyanoacrylate glue (Crazy Glue®), some wood cauls that are prepared to the shape of the curve, wax paper, and two 3" C-clamps.

Prepare the wood cauls to the right curvature. Sand both the female and male faces of the cauls smooth. Cut two pieces of wax paper about 3˝ x 3˝. Test fit the cauls on either side of the rib and set the C-clamps to the approximate opening (so you don't have to spend a lot of time turning the clamps after you have applied the glue). Run a bead of cyanoacrylate glue down the joint, put a piece of wax paper on either side of the rib (over the glued area, of course), position the cauls, and tighten the clamps securely. The photograph shows only one clamp, but it is ideal to use two clamps so that you fully tighten the cauls on top and on bottom (apply a clamp from either direction so you have full access to each clamp's turning lever). Allow the glue to dry for 15 minutes. Remove the clamps and cauls, peel away the wax paper, and sand the glued seam smooth. The joint should be virtually invisible and will become more invisible as you sand through the upper few grain layers of the wood.

Usually, these cracks occur in the tight bends, and it is in these areas that ribs are typically shaded darker than other areas, so the seam will become even more invisible.