Cutting my own wood binding

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Okay, so I need some clarification help.
I have some lovely solid hard maple flooring I got a few years ago. It had been pulled up and the nails were still in it...10' lengths.
Some was split, but much was good so I cut out the bad stuff and the parts with nails in it, and I have 4 or 5 pieces 3 to 4 ft. long. It is quarter sawn and will make awesome binding. What I need to know is which way do I want the grain to run down the length of the strips? Do I want it quarter sawn like a side would be and then cut my 1/4" wide strips from that, or do I want the grain to run parallel to the width; the 1/4" width? I can get quite a bit from this maple and I'm excited to see how it turns out. Now that I have the drum sander, I can accomplish this.
I have some orphaned walnut sides I'm going to cut for bindings, and these are quarter sawn, and I assumed this was going to be the correct grain orientation.

Kevin

[johnnparchem]

My thought is that it would be cut like a side. But I am not an expert in cutting bindings. I have cut some from side cut offs. The rosewood bindings I have from LMI are cut that way as well.

[Tony_in_NYC]

+1 to what John said. However, if the figure shows up better oriented the other way, go with the other way instead!

[kencierp]

Any way is fine riff/slab/1/4 -- what look do you want? That is not to say that a particular piece of wood will always bend well from a particular cut. Sometimes slab cut will peel and de-laminate at the grain or shatter when at the vertical. Keep the thickness at about .075 of less and you'll be OK.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

My thought was better to avoid the splitting, cracking. It is not figured maple but on the quarter has really nice silking.
Okay, so I will cut it on the quarter. Thanks guys.

Kevin

[Ken Hundley]

I have done it both ways, depending on what grain I want to show. The only one I have had a problem with is flamed or curly maple. I can cut it smooth, finish sand it so all edges are flat, true, and smooth. Then I go to bend it, and it swells with the ripples. Not an issue on the outside as it gets sanded flush, but can be an issue on the bottom (the thin edge that meets the side) and the inner curves to a smaller extent. Most of these re-swell as they take wood glue.

I find I have to use a flat board with some 220 grit sandpaper and carefully sand the whole bottom edge of the binding flat again after its been bent, or I get odd gaps in places.

I have used Koa, Wenge, Padauk, Ebony, Maple, and Zebra for bindings, and have used them in different orientations. None have delaminated, luckily.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Ken,
I knew you had cut a bunch of your own bindings and wondered what you thought. It seems flat sawn would bend easier, but also break easier. I just bent very Curly Koa bindings on a hot pipe (hope to not have to do that again) and had some trouble with cracking, although nothing I couldn't save. I wouldn't even mess with cutting this maple, but I don't know what else to do with it, and it will make nice simple wood bindings.

Kevin

[Ken Hundley]

I am horrible bending on a pipe, but I would imagine of you use metal straps on both sides of the wood, you might have better results (if you haven't tried that already). I have cracked a few even in my bender. I learned to sand thinner, go slower, and have patience, but it worked...even the figured stuff. Again, how you bend really depends on what you want to show. If I want a lot of figure in the binding to offset a very plain or uniform side wood, then I will flat saw wenge or maple or koa. If I want a simple, uniform binding to offset a wild wood like curly mango, I would quarter saw it. The Mango guitar was flat-sawn, and the bindings....in retrospect....are almost too wild, I think quarter sawn would have looked better, let t he mango speak for its self.

[kencierp]

Kevin -- just to reiterate -- we make all our own bindings all different woods including Blood-Wood (in my opinion the most unpredictable) as I've mentioned above and we discussed elsewhere, the key bending criteria is getting the material thin enough. I think Running Dog gave the scientific explanation as to why this is so important. Standard bindings are just .062"

[Darryl Young]

Kevin (or any one else), do you cut stock slightly oversize followed by running it through the sander to get the final width (.2"-.25")? Then similarly trim off slices slighter thicker than needed and run this through the sander to get the final thickness (0.062-0.088")? If so, I guess one could use a table saw or a bandsaw for these cuts.