> I have redwood.

By "depends on the wood" I meant that board-by-board you will find some strips are more flexible than others. Wood is a natural product with a lot of variation even in the same board.

> Do you mean taper the thickness of the wood or the width? If you mean
> width then it seems that "cheater strips" would almost be a
> requirement. If you mean across the thickness I may be in luck... I wasn't
> the best at ripping my strips and some ended up a little thinner than
> others. Oh well.

I meant narrower width. The sheer requires bending across the strip width, so changing the width will have the most effect on flexibility in that direction.