Yew've been framed...

Ugh... awful pun.  As mentioned in the previous post yew can come up with some nasty suprises when preparing boards for instruments.  Lines following the grain holding a white powdery deposit are often assocated with weakness and splits that can proprogate some distance away - keep well away from these areas!  The most annoying trick that yew has up its sleeve are the hidden knots, which appear as the top is carved away...   A pair of boards were joined for the current builds - the 'top' was flawless with nice matched grain.  The back pictured on the left below looked promising before work started, with some interesting grain near the bottom, but the as the 'flawless' top was thinned a horrible knot appeared (right) and the board had to be rejected.

Sometimes you can get away with it...  Here is a board, overall lower quality with a surpise knot near the bottom edge.  This one will be useable though.  Is yew worth it?  Oh yes...