Bookmatch for the "Pickguard" inlay

During last years "Snowtober" storm a large maple fell in a nearby forest I ride my mountain bike in. I noticed that the cracked pieces on the ground had spalting in it - similar to what I have on the front of the last bass I made. I paid a lot of money for the piece of spalted maple I used in the last bass, so I was psyched to find pieces just laying on the ground.

Unfortunately this tree is miles from the nearest exit point, so getting even these chunks out was a pain, I lost feeling in my shoulders from the extra weight in my Camelbak on one trip.

I carved a bowl out of one of the chunks. I have to finish sanding it and oil it. This piece had a lot of worm holes in it, which is cool for a bowl, but not so cool for the front of a bass.

I took one of the other chunks I found over to my father's wood shop today and bookmatched it. This seems like a fairly simple operation, but considering it was literally a chunk of wood, with no straight edges, it was quite a chore to get to the point where I could actually do the bookmatch cut. I had to work back and forth between the chop saw, the table saw and the band saw to get enough square edges that I could properly bookmatch it. Unfortunately the final piece is a little smaller than what I think I need. I'll keep it around and see if I can make the pickguard this small. Its off by about a half inch, a bit disappointing, but we'll see, maybe it will work out.

Now I'm thinking I need to get out there with a chainsaw and get more of this wood! Its on private property, so that would be a bit risky.