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Any post finishing solution will have downsides. The best answer is to minutely inspect the surface under a raking light before applying the finish, and correct any problems then. I appreciate that's not what you want to hear, but that's woodworking reality. Either chalk this one down to...

I've used Meranti in yacht fit outs, but never for furniture making. However, if I found some stunning Meranti boards like yours then that would all change in a heartbeat! Great find.

Chris, if this is for thicknessing purposes then the workpiece should really be fully supported, rather than just at a few individual points. The downward pressure from the feed rollers is pretty extreme and will flex the workpiece, therefore ruling any accuracy and consistency, if there are any...

My rule of thumb for callipers is either dig deep and get expensive digital. Or save a load of money and use the fibreglass bodied, dial callipers from Rabone or DialMax (make sure you get the Swiss made versions, not the Chinese copies). These dial callipers measure accurately and repeatably to...

Rob, I'm surprised that you're working with such narrow pieces of Cedar of Lebanon. Quite a few timber yards stock C of L in 15mm thick boards for shingles, in the South East the best source I've found is Tylers. What's more they'll let you self select quarter sawn boards. These are truly...

The stated thickness of ply is "nominal", ie there's a tolerance. Even on top quality Birch ply you'll find variation, and what's more you can sometimes find thickness variation even within a single sheet! It's inevitable really, there will be variation within the veneer slicing and the glue...

At the end. As a general rule I grind at 25 degrees, sharpen at about 27 degrees, and hone at about 30 degrees. I wouldn't get too obsessed with angles, a degree or two either way doesn't make much practical difference. If the tile's flat then yes, a lot of people use float glass, I prefer a...

Yes, broadly speaking the scary sharp paper does exactly the same job as a strop. It's down to individual choices, but personally I prefer scary sharp paper to a strop, however I know some excellent craftsmen who think otherwise. So whatever you choose you'll be in great company! Here's my...

I can't remember how long it took to bed in my "Extra Extra Fine", but I don't think it took very long at all. Even though it's graded as 6,000 grit it won't raise a mirror polish where as every 6,000 grit water stone I've ever used will deliver a mirror polish. But there's no doubt that the...

Welcome back!

I've used diamond stones from Atoma, Trend, DMT, and (at least briefly) Ultex. The clear winner is Atoma, they're just beautiful stones to use, fast, clean, accurate, loads of feedback, superbly made. Trend and DMT are pretty much at a level, fully up to professional requirements, just not...

As a rule of thumb, if I've got more than eight legs to taper then I set up a jig that's mounted on the sliding table of the saw. One pass and the cut's done, But any jig requires a certain amount of time to set it up, then it's plain common sense to run a test cut, and of course most...

I'd second that, in fact on the piece I linked to previously on buying hardwoods I mainly illustrated it with photos of Black Walnut. There are only two reasons why I didn't nominate ABW. Firstly is price, it used to be just a bit more expensive than American Cherry (about £80 a cubic foot...

One rabbit holes to stay well away from is getting too giddy about timbers and ending up with lots of random boards of different species. You'll never have enough of one type to actually make anything, and the learning from working with one timber can sometimes run contrary to best practise with...

If just one edge is out then you're guaranteed to have problems. Check and double check, glue up the top in two or three sub-assemblies rather than doing the entire top in one go, use a slow setting glue such as Cascamite in order to give yourself plenty of time to fuss around getting things...

Here are some examples of components I've made that approximate to the OP's requirements. This is a Sitka Spruce soundboard at under 4mm thick. If you look carefully you can see it's sawn dead on the quarter. Here are some other Spruce soundboards, These are some Rippled Black Walnut...

It's an interesting idea. I tried something similar with Osmo Raw Oil, which uses finely ground pigment to neutralise the yellowing effects of oil finishes on pale timbers. Here was a finish test sample masked off against sunlight with a sheet of MDF. The timber is Sycamore, and the pigmented...

You're missing a critical point here Fire Frogs. Cuts like these are more about the donor board (ie the piece of wood you start with) than the choice of bandsaw. With a straight grained, consistently dried, stable timber that was originally processed so that your final pieces will all be...

I've run dozens of tests looking for a solution to this problem, The above photo shows four timbers, clockwise from the top left are Oak, Sycamore, Black Walnut, and American Cherry. The left hand side of each board is unfinished, the right hand side is finished with a high quality yacht...

Beech is commonly available in two different versions, Steamed Beech (which has a slight pink colour) and Unsteamed Beech (which is pale white/yellow). If you want to match your Beech in the future then make sure it's steamed, they're normally the same price so it's down to personal preference...