b'Opposite page: Another interesting story. Somehow, my friend Eddie Green came to hear about some Rosewood at a Funeral Directors workshop in Keswick. I was nearest. It took a lot of work to get it home, and even more to have it cut as close as I could to quarter. It is very unusual wood, very wild grained and rather pink, I deliberately left it fairly thick, as I think it will be best for fingerboards, but it might make something very interesting one day.This page: Top: Me, regarding my own little kingdom and practicing leg yoga at the top of a staircase. Not the best idea.Centre: The smaller picture is one of those luckier times when snooker table material was of the highest quality, table rails cut into perfect back and side sets. Most of the peg holes will be cut away, or at least I will have some top Mandolin material. Bottom: Split billets of Western Red Cedar. Splitting with an axe and metal wedges is an excellent way of finding the best true surface for a soundboard, where all the cell structure lies parallel to the finished surface, with no runout. As you can see, the split surface is usually very uneven, and a lot of quality wood needs to be sawn and planed away before the first full size flat surface is found, so it is wasteful and not always the best procedure. Once one surface is flat, book matched pairs will be cut to make guitar tops, and there are often single pieces, known as orphans , in the trade, left over. Dealing with wood in this form does teach you a lot about structure and potential flaws, you really dont know what you are gonna get, but the chances are good, and it is fun.153'