I was instructed by my guitar sensei to make my own kerfed linings. There's nothing at all special about them other than I was very careful to make them all precisely the same thickness, and consequently they all had an extremely consistent and precise web thickness. This sort of lets you make all the webs a just a little thinner because everything takes stress equally.

The results:

My linings are in front. Luthier supply in back. The store bought one is actually just a little longer than the particular piece of mine I choose, so I'm actually at a disadvantage here. Still, there's a very clear difference in flexibility.



Ah, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so let's eat some linings. Does that little bit of extra flexibility really matter? See for yourself.

Theirs (look familiar? It's actually cracked in two place, but my fingers covering one up):



Mine:



These things go around curves like butter. Yeah, they took a long time to make and it was very tedious and exacting work, but it's worth it, IMHO. And anyhow, now I have enough linings for a while



So I learned something rather surprising about myself. I can actually get excited over kerfed linings