Wood for fiddles + some self applause!

[Reefmagnet]

I managed to pick up a brand new force 10 marine oven - still in it's box - and including delivery for about 1/3 rd of the price of a new one thanks indirectly to the recent demise of Bias (a multi-store chandler over here that went bust). Pretty chuffed about that, but not as much as the wife so I'm definitely in the good books at the moment

Anyway to keep the admiral happy, I've promised to install this thing ASAP. According to my calculations (gulp!) it will fit the hole in the galley pretty much perfectly. Unfortunately, a PO has removed an original oven and installed a "Lido Junior" stove and grill. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but these stoves when gimballed are fractionally wider than the standard oven width and as a result one of the fiddles was removed to make room during installation. The cavity itself is a fibreglass moulding, so the wooden fiddle is mounted to the side of the fibreglass. It looks as if it may have been epoxy glued rather than screwed originally, but I'll need to double check this. The dimension is around 400 mm long by 75 mm high by around 12 mm thick. Not sure what the original wood is, but I want to make a replacement for the missing one and while I'm at it I'll replace the existing one on the other side as well.

I know little about wood work and wood aside from the basics so I'm thinking that the wood just needs to be something attractive to look at and reasonably durable. Colour matching the existing wood isn't so critical because these particular fiddles stand alone attached to the moulding. My thoughts are to use Tassie Oak just because it seems reasonably common at the local hardware stores and looks attractive enough. Considering these fiddles ** may ** be epoxied and not screwed, and will be in close proximity to the stove is this wood a good choice, or wood (lol!) something else be better?

[Ocean Girl]

Oak sounds good to me�� happy woodworking.

[ryon]

I have stood by helplessly as workers have attacked old and venerated woodwork with their Sawzalls, for no good reason other than to install a new holding tank, or repair damage to some unrelated portion of the ship. It always seems to turn out well, when the new wood is substituted and finished.

You're only putting in some fiddle rails! Don't stress over it. Whatever you choose will probably come out fine. If not, then take a crowbar to it, and try something else. It's your boat, and it's okay to waste ten bucks worth of wood to make it the way you want.

[Reefmagnet]

Cheers guys. Yeah, just making sure there's no obvious issue. I think they're called "fiddles" because of all the fiddling around with rounded edges and stuff!