I am in the planning stages of a project that will require 2 curved braces
approximately 3 feet long. The material is 5/4 red oak. I can cut the braces
out of an 8" wide board but the center line of the board will run through
the inside of the arc. I don't have a lot of experience at this but
something tells me that this will weaken the piece quite a bit. This is
mostly decorative so it won't bear a lot of weight; maybe 100 pounds at
most. I just don't want the brace to split. I would rather not use a wider
board... this stuff is already too expensive. Any advice would be very much
appreciated.

Steve H.