Help - Hairline cracks in roasted maple headstock

[rgand]

Just saw your pix, Bro, that sucks! I'm really surprised that roasted maple is so brittle. Maybe maple is just too hard to begin with. Shame you can't temper wood.....

This is kind of a dumb metaphor, but I like to use it: Maple vs Roasted Maple is sort of like bread vs toast.

I KNEW my necks were toasted. :icon_biggrin:

Seriously, that's a good analogy.

 

[BigSteve22]

This is kind of a dumb metaphor, but I like to use it: Maple vs Roasted Maple is sort of like bread vs toast.

I was thinking more like steel. To quote Wikipedia:

"Frequently, the term "hardening" is associated with tempered steel. Both processes are used hand in hand when hardening steel. The two part process begins with hardening the steel so that it becomes hard and does not wear over time. However, very often, this process leaves the steel very brittle and susceptible to breaking during use. Tempering reduces the hardness of the forged steel very slightly but improves the overall product as it results in steel that is much less brittle."

My point is that maybe the torrefication process is over hardening an already very hard wood, leading to brittleness that can't be tempered out. It's pretty and it's stable, but is it too hard? I certainly don't know, but I'd be really careful not to subject it to too much abuse....

 

[mayfly]

My kids dropped one of my telecasters with a roasted maple neck.  It didn't break, but there's a small chip out of it...