When I was building MacPherson prototypes we used a good deal of
redwood, and I haven't touched it since. It wasn't figured, and it was
baked, but all the seasoning and baking was done in Wisconsin before the
materials were shipped out to us. Unfortunately I don't know how it was
dried and baked but I have a feeling it was done too aggressively. That
particular wood had absolutely no outstanding qualities that could put it
above any other common top wood in any respect.
The worst part was that the bond between the fibers themselves were
rediculously weak. Binding slots were seeing tear out, braces were
popping off left and right (not the glue joint, but rather taking lots of
redwood with the brace). And they really didn't sound at all remarkable
when they did hold together. All this seemed to happen to the redwood
while the sitka and englemann models being build along side suffered
none. This experience seems to line up with the warnings above from
Spruce.
To be fair, this wood all came from one tree and was probably mistreated,
and I'm sure it is not representative of redwood in general. To be safe
however, this is one wood I would probably avoid baking. I know a
number of builders who enjoy working with redwood, but I still have a
bad taste in my mouth from that experience.
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) It will be a figured redwood on figured walnut. This is my first time with redwood.
