: Hi Stan, Hi Rehd

: First things first: Do you have flat grain or verticle grain in the 2 x 8?

: You want to end up with verticle grain in your strips if possible,...

--SNIP--

: I don't know what knowledge you have of grain patterns, but, Verticle grain
: is when the growth rings in the lumber are going up and down in the face
: of your board. They will be fairly straight and close together.( while it
: is laying flat on the table ) That is what you want in your strips. Flat
: grain is when the growth rings are going across the board in swirly
: patterns. This is where the old saying " a picture is worth a
: thousand words " comes in real handy. It's tough to explain to
: someone who hasn't dealt with it before. Anyone want to sketch, scan and
: post an image of this???

So, the best verbal picture I can think of for differentiating vertical grain and flat grain is of a baseball bat. Stan, if you have a baseball bat around, take a look at it. You'll notice the label where it says, "Louisville Slugger" or something like that, branded into the wood. That label is on the "flat grain" section of the wood. In the proper hitting position, the label is facing the sky when the bat meets the ball in the strike zone, so the ball hits the "vertical grain", 90 deg away from the label on the flat grain. The bat (the wood) is strongest in this orientation.

Rehd's discusses planning your rips so that the end product strip is made to be vertical grain. This is a good plan, but not so critical to the success of the boat building that I would hesitate to use flat grained strips in the final product. I did, and they turned out fine.

Ed Valley