wood binding grain orientation

[Kary Karahadian]

I'd like to try laying up a sandwich of side off cut and purflings that i take to the bandsaw and cut into individual bindings ready to bend. by using side leftovers the bindings will have the grain rotated 90 degrees to the sides. might this make bending the bindings more difficult? if a slab cut piece was used for the process, the orientation would be like the sides and easier to bend (?).

kary

[Michael Lewis]

This sort of depends on what you want from the bindings. Typically they were used to take the occasional impact to prevent damage the edges of the soft soundboard and prevent cracks. To this end it needs to be long grain along the edges to spread any impact over a wider area. It has become more of a decoration to some, to show off wildly figured wood or some other aspect. There are no rules or laws that tell you that it must be a certain configuration, so use your imagination and do some thinking about the physics, practicality, appearance, etc. Show us what you come up with.

[Kary Karahadian]

Thanks Michael. I'm wondering if the 90 rotation will be problematic when trying to bend them in the Fox bender.