Side Bending Practice Wood

It was so helpful to be able to practice bending the first time. Every species will be different - this was maple, I used mahogany for the guitar. But I figured it out. Trying to keep the costs down I might have gone without, but it was SO WORTH IT.
Thanks Stewmac!

It was great to be able to practice on this wood before bending my actual sides.

excellent material for training. And the price is low.

Perfect for giving me some confidence on my first guitar on a homemade bending pipe. Cheap lessons learned before going to my real sides.

but too short

Well, this was only for practice. The wood is a little short in length but i managed to practice a little with it.

I tried the practice side bending wood with my homemade bending iron. The wood was pretty much as stated in the website listing; unmatched wood of some species (Maple I believe). The first one bent very oddly (my technique and inconsistent heat across the pipe)and I am not sure that it was actually quartersawn.

The second one was quite "flamey" making it a more of a challenge to bend (it split in three places as I thought it might) although the bends actually came out better. The pieces weren't the "easy to bend type" I thought they would be. Never the less, I think trying these two pieces first gave me a chance to see how challenging bending can be. I am attempting now to find a local source of straight grain, dried quartersawn hardwood to resaw and practice on for a while before I attempt real instrument wood.

Pay attention to the length of this wood, it is too short for an actual guitar. Would be perfect for a mandolin or Uke though. Otherwise, very nice.

The wood arrived in excellent condition. Stew-Mac doesn't say what kind of wood it is, but I think it is maple. My set had a slight curl to it. Excellent value if you want to make low cost sides for an acoustic.