eBay Red Spruce Bracing wood

Hey what do you think of this
https://www.ebay.com/itm/291653111446

The guy says it's old growth Red Spruce.
The moisture content should be at or below 10%
"The box contains mixed 2nd growth and Old Growth wood so that ring spacing will vary. An average is probably 12 per inch". This seems low.

Also, they said that the grain orientation would allow for vertical grain braces

it is $68 for ten to 12 pounds of wood. Probably should get several baritone sets of braces out of the lot.

12 per inch is fine. In my mind there is no magic in red spruce as compared to sitka for brace wood. I don't know what brace wood goes for wherever you live but the linked wood would cost me $140 with shipping, I am assuming your shipping is less. I would be embarrassed to pay that much for brace wood. That said the Hampton Brothers sell a quality product and you will not be opening up a box and finding firewood. Their tops are second to none and they know how to properly process their wood. How much this wood would do for a uke as compared to other quality brace wood?

printer2 said:

12 per inch is fine. In my mind there is no magic in red spruce as compared to sitka for brace wood. I don't know what brace wood goes for wherever you live but the linked wood would cost me $140 with shipping, I am assuming your shipping is less. I would be embarrassed to pay that much for brace wood. That said the Hampton Brothers sell a quality product and you will not be opening up a box and finding firewood. Their tops are second to none and they know how to properly process their wood. How much would this wood do for a uke as compared to other quality brace wood?

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It's free shipping to me so the 10 -12 pounds would be $68.00. I do not know what good quality brace wood would cost. I am just trying to find something that will work. This is my first scratch build. It does not have to be the best, but I don't want the ukulele to fold up like an accordion either.

I bought some spruce from a local supplier; it seems too mushy once sized for braces. It flexes easily in my hand.

I will check out the Hampton Brothers

Thanks

I’ve used cedar for bracing. For the last number of ukuleles I’ve made, I went to Home Depot and bought a fence board. I looked for a piece that was quarter sawn and had close annual rings. There’s usually a good piece in a pile of boards. One board makes a lot of braces. With cedar being an acceptable sound board, I reason that it should work well for bracing.

the stuff you're linking above looks to me like it's going to need a lot more processing to get out vertical grain bracing stock than the stuff at Stewmac that you linked in the other thread...

Besides, how many ukes are you planning to make?? Seems more than enough for a single soprano or concert uke in a single piece 2" x20"x3/4" like the pieces at Stewmac that you linked.

Friesen5 said:

I’ve used cedar for bracing. For the last number of ukuleles I’ve made, I went to Home Depot and bought a fence board. I looked for a piece that was quarter sawn and had close annual rings. There’s usually a good piece in a pile of boards. One board makes a lot of braces. With cedar being an acceptable sound board, I reason that it should work well for bracing.

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That is a great idea

I've alos gotten some nice brace wood from Home Depot. I would sort through the dry 2x4s when they had what we used to call in the trades "piss fir" or white fir. Smells a little like piss when sawed. I believe it's in the sprece family. extreemly strong and light.

Swamp Yankee said:

the stuff you're linking above looks to me like it's going to need a lot more processing to get out vertical grain bracing stock than the stuff at Stewmac that you linked in the other thread...

Besides, how many ukes are you planning to make?? Seems more than enough for a single soprano or concert uke in a single piece 2" x20"x3/4" like the pieces at Stewmac that you linked.

Click to expand...

From the Stewmac photo, it does not look like the grain is running in the right direction for vertical grain orientation. It's hard to tell so maybe it is.

I have a local supplier that has cheap seconds mahogany guitar tops, backs and sides. They also have some old mahogany blanks that work well for necks. What they do not have apparently is quality spruce for braces?
Since I can get the wood cheep my plan is to make enough Baritone ukuleles until I know, I have the skills down and the make one nice one, with expensive wood.

Having a good supply of spruce for braces would not be a bad thing

Michael Smith said:

I've alos gotten some nice brace wood from Home Depot. I would sort through the dry 2x4s when they had what we used to call in the trades "piss fir" or white fir. Smells a little like piss when sawed. I believe it's in the sprece family. extremely strong and light.

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Hey Michael, I'm in your neck of the woods (sorta) and what us locals call "piss fir" or more commonly "white fir" is actually western hemlock or Tsuga heterophylla. It is in the fir family (abies) and not the spruce family (picea). However, this is the problem with common names in that they can vary with locale and can be misleading. Sorry if that was more information than was needed. Will it make good bracing material? Shrug. I don't know, but I know that it probably doesn't have the weight to strength ratio that spruce can have. But it is still plenty strong and light enough for our purposes. With quality sitka spruce being so cheap, I just opt to go with spruce. Doesn't mean other woods wouldn't work just as well. Are we over thinking this a bit. Probably.