Source for Sitka spuce dowel

[Dave Anthony]

I'm in the Sacramento area, and have a friend who fixes esoteric stringed instruments. In this case he's making a soundpost for a viola da gamba and he's looking for ~3/8" doweling, but of spruce. Quarter-sawn Sitka spruce would be best, but not essential. All the dowels I've been able to find have been beech, which doesn't work well for this application.
Any ideas where one could find such a thing?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Dave,

My suggestion would be find some sitka spruce and have a turner turn one.

3 minutes or less on a lathe with a sharp skew.

[Dave Anthony]

When I think about it, I don't really know what a quarter sawn dowel would be. Since a true QS board is flat sawn on adjacent faces, if I turn this into a cylinder, if I look at the end of the cylinder and rotate it the grain will go from vertical to horizontal to vertical... So based on this it seems I could turn three dowels: 1 from QS stock, 1 from rift sawn stock, and one from flatsawn stock, and they would all look identical. I think from a structural standpoint it would be strongest if the grain was straight; ie, if the grain is parallel to the long axis of the cylinder. Am I missing something here?

[George Clark]

Dave,

These folks have dowels made from sitka spruce as well as from virtually every other wood known to man.

http://dowelsondemand.org/prices.html

The grain direction does not change when you rotate a quarter sawn board. When you look at the quarter sawn face the lines that run perpendicular to the grain are medullary rays that run from heart to bark. You are correct that on any quarter sawn board the adjacent face will be flat sawn. You are also correct that the strongest dowel will be one with the grain parallel to the long axis. Windsor chair makers rive (split) their spindle stock to follow the grain exactly. When they shape the spindle the object is to follow the grain which may not yield a perfectly straight spindle. This yields maximum strength for the size of the spindle and much stronger than a spindle with grain run-out. When you look at the end grain the lines that you see are the growth rings. This tells you how the board or dowel was oriented in the tree. The face or side that is parallel to the growth rings is referred to as the tangential face. The face or side that is perpendicular to the growth rings is the radial face.

George

[Paul Atkins]

I'm just up the road from you and I'll do it if you can find some spruce. I have some Port Orford cedar and a small piece of Engleman spruce.