Hi Charles, A finger joint is nothing peculiar to piano work. You might find them most anywhere woodworking happens. Do this... Take your two hands and lay them down on the desktop in front of you. Align your hands so that your fingers are pointed towards each other. Spread your fingers apart so that about the width of a finger is between each of the fingers of each hand. While keeping your hands flat on the desktop, move your hands so as to mesh your two hands together, putting the fingers of one hand in the spaces between the fingers of the other hand. Now, make the mental leap... Imagine that your hands are two pieces of wood being joined together. You can imagine, and rightly so, that this would be a very strong joint with lots of glue surface if done properly. That's a finger joint. Honestly, I don't get terribly excited about finger joints in a soundboard panel, although I see nothing wrong with it. A lot of the cracking I've seen in soundboards is not at the glue joints. I'd venture to say that so long as there's a good glue joint between the boards of a panel, it'll likely crack elsewhere. (Just an opinion.) Brian Trout Quarryville, PA btrout@desupernet.net
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