Resaw a book-matched flame maple top – guidance please

[Brock Poling]

I am not super knowledgable about resawing raw lumber, but a few general tips for resawing from squared up lumber. I would make sure the wood is DRY before you cut it (especially with maple). I have had issues with it cupping if it is not dry. Once cut I put it back under stickers for a few weeks for it to restabilize.

In terms of cutting it I use a 3TPI Wood Slicer resaw blade from Highland Hardware, and I generally do a very accurate saw setup before I do it.

[Dominic De Bellis Double D Basses]

Hello Brock – thanks for writing and for the good suggestions! The maple I have has been equilibrating in my shop for about 2 years now, so it’s at about 45% RH, which (I hope) should be OK. I have a Laguna Band Saw with their Resaw Ling blade — Need to check the TPI on this blade, so thanks for that point.

[Andrew Framsted]

You’re doing this with a band saw I assume? Get the largest blade your saw will accommodate (for my Grizzly 14″ band saw, it’s a 3/4″ blade. You’ll want a tall fence on the inside of the blade (for me, it’s a trued up piece of 2″ plywood clamped in place. And on the other side of my blade is one of these products to help keep my piece from wandering as I push it through https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MQ4F9ST/

[Dominic De Bellis Double D Basses]

Thanks very much, Andrew. Yes, I am using a Laguna 14-12 Band Saw with a 3/4″ Resaw King blade, 3 TPI; tall fence and feather board as well. I am fully aligned with your recommendations. My challenge here is to understand how to properly orient the billet of flame maple so once sawn, the result is a book-matched pair of maple pieces cut off of the large stock.

[Paul M]

Just to be clear, if you resaw it, the two pieces you slice will definitely be bookmatched? Maybe I’m misunderstanding you but wherever you cut it, it will be bookmatches on that line.

If you haven’t done a ton of resawing before, I’d definitely practice on some scrap. Use a micrometer and see how consistent your piece is. I would practice a lot.

Maple can be kinda nasty in general because it burns and is pretty hard. Ideally you get your two pieces exactly the same thickness because it’s not super fun to thickness sand.

[Dominic De Bellis Double D Basses]

Paul, thanks for the good advice — yes, some practice is in order as I have not been in my shop for a while. Further, you are correct that both sawn pieces will be “matched” on the cut line, I understand your point here. I was not too clear in my explanation above. I have a thick billet of maple that I will need to cut to match the length of my body blanks; then, based on the thickness (which I need to re-measure) I may be able to get more than one pair of half pieces, making a total of 2 full tops (4 pieces in total). Time to also tune up my jointer. Thanks again.

[Paul M]

Ok. If you’re talking about joining the faces of what you cut on the joiner, I would proceed with caution. A joiner and flamed maple is going to likely cause insane tear out. Depends a bit on the joiner but that’s probably one of the hardest woods to join.

In general that’s a job for a thickness sander.

If you’re talking about joining the edges that’s a bit easier.

[Dominic De Bellis Double D Basses]

Thanks, Paul. I intend to join the edges of the 2 maple pieces to form the full-sized top. I may not use he jointer for this for the reasons you note. My alternative would be my shooting board and jointer plane. This first attempt will be nerve-wracking, I’m sure (!).