Originally Posted by
Tim Cooper Louisiana
I read a post somewhere that said the front of the bench takes the most damage. Some folks used SYP but with the first board being hard maple. I'm a sucker for light and dark wood being used together. I was planning on using black locust for the leg chop and the end cap. I hope these are the right terms. I am going to go Roubo. I do want to make sure I use something that will move well with the SYP if I'm going to laminate the first board with something different. Hope that I am making sense.
You are making good sense. I do not know that what ever the front piece is will have to move the same as SYP. Wood usually moves with the grain and not over the length.
Most of the work gets done on the front of the bench. Things like mortise and dovetail chopping.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)