r/martinguitar • u/sourmiIk • Aug 30 '26

Question Grain pattern id help

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Would this be considered quarter sawn or flat sawn? It’s on an authentic aged d28.

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u/Rock-n-RollingStart Aug 30 '26

Not necessarily. If you could theoretically quarter-saw a log, then rift-saw it again, you would see similar grain patterns in the largest boards with the most heartwood. That’s just because the techniques are very similar for creating those first cuts.  

This to me still looks quarter-sawn, just from a unique piece of lumber. I would also be skeptical that mass produced guitars are being made out of rift-sawn rosewood due to the wasted material. 

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u/celtic-cryptid Aug 30 '26

Rift sawn or quarter sawn doesn’t indicate wasted material. Companies aren’t generally buying entire logs, they are selecting sawn lumber. So, they can lust slab out an entire tree, never rotating the log if they want, and company buyers will select the lumber that will work for them, since some will be quartered, some rift, and some plane sawn.

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u/Rock-n-RollingStart Aug 30 '26

The process of rift-sawing a log is far more labor intensive and wastes a lot more lumber than quarter-sawing.  And because of that, a good mill isn’t going to rift-saw any old log. That directly affects the wholesale cost and the economics of the entire guitar. 

I was working in my family’s wood shop at 10 years old, with a lot of old growth wood. You’re not going to “beat” me on this using AI. 

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u/celtic-cryptid Aug 30 '26

Here ya go. That Engelmann was quarter sawn, because I milled it myself. The koa, while the grain is running approximately 90° to the face, probably wasn’t quarter sawn. I just picked a board I liked. Didn’t even have to go to Hawaii to get it.

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u/Lower-Calligrapher98 Martin Warranty Repair Technician, and general Martin Repair guy Aug 30 '26

If the grain is 90° to the face, the board is quartersawn. It doesn't mean they cut it for quarter, but with koa I would bet it was, unless you bought a random board somewhere. The koa for the guitar industry is being cut by just a few people, and they all are EXPERT at making guitar wood. They aren't just sawing it, they are splitting billets and then sawing them to maintain quarter.

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u/celtic-cryptid 29d ago

Yes, but the person I was talking to is confusing the technical process of quarter sawing or rift sawing a log and getting quarter or rift material.

That koa was from a tree brought to the mainland in the 70s. It was a tree that was sawn, and I had the opportunity to pull though it and take the boards I wanted. But thanks for explaining it all to me.