End checking in bubinga

[Perry Underwood]

I recently bought a very large piece of bubinga. The rough dimensions are 40+ inches long, 16 inches wide, and 2 1/2 inches thick. I plan to get two guitar necks and two bodies out of this piece, plus two "caps" for guitar bodies.

Three days ago I cut the board into two pieces for easier transport to a lumber yard for resawing. (I've yet to have it resawn.) Each piece is about 19 inches long. Today I noticed end checking on the ends of both cuts I made. The deepest check is about 1/4 inch deep. None of the checks have reached the top or bottom surfaces of the boards.

My questions are:

1. Is it too late to put something on the ends to prevent more checking?
2. Is there any way to tell how bad the checking will get?

There wasn't any checking that I could see at either end of the board before cutting. I also cut a section of the board for the necks--about 36 inches long by 3 inches wide. There is no checking at the end of the new cut.

I live in Taiwan. The winters are not particularly dry, although less humid than the rest of the year.

Any information would be very appreciated. Thanks in advance, Perry

Here are a few pictures of the board. The first photo shows the board after the piece for the necks was cut. The second photo shows one of the original ends.

[Ted Wong]

I had the same thing happen to me with some Granadillo. The lumber was beautiful when first planed and cut. After the weekend I noticed small splits on the fresh cut surfaces that continued to grow to about an 1" over the course of several days. When I put a moisture meter to the material I found it to be at 18% MC, way too high for working. The problem with many of the dense tropical species is that not all processors are conscientious about drying adequately and the temptation is to push it through the kiln and ship it before it is down to 12% or less.

[Perry Underwood]

Thank you, Ted, for your response. I hope you were able to use the wood. I sealed the ends the best I could and will look for further signs of checking.

Fortunately, most guitar bodies are around 17 inches long or so.

Thanks again.