Hey everyone,

First time poster, long time lurker.

I'm a relatively new woodworker from South Africa. What we in SA lack in snazzy woodworking products and tools (importing woes) we make up for in cheap tropical hardwoods

Anyway, I just got my first commission for a large dining table, and it'll be the second table I ever built. Going to use Rhodesian Teak and I've already selected and milled up my stock.

We're quite limited in SA with timber suppliers and I've never ever seen rift sawn wood for sale. I want to make 100% sure my table remains stable so I'm going to drop my margins and rip my boards to use the "better" part of the board and basically make my own quarter/rift sawn boards. As I was planning this I realized I don't quite know what to do with the leftover wood.

Basically, what's the best application for the wood from the centre of the tree? Turning? Structural stuff? Supports in larger furniture? I realize I can just turn the wood 90 degrees and I'll have the nice vertical rings, but something about that just doesn't seem right