I just bought a 2x2x12 piece of Ebony from Rockler and it has the wax coating on it to prevent splitting, I guess. I know enough about chemistry to get this stuff off chemically, but I am worried about the wood splitting after I take the wax off. I was reading up on this coating in this post: http://straightrazorpalace.com/works...x-removal.html and saw the post by cannonfodder about the wax keeping in moisture and splitting once the wax is removed. I have two concerns: one being the integrity of the stock piece which is easily rewaxed, so I guess I'm not really worried about that. What I am worried about is the stability of the scale blanks that I am going to cut out of this piece of wood. Will I need to somehow stabilize these blanks to prevent splitting? Or will the splitting not be an issue? Thanks.