Preferred grain direction in wood cleats

[devil dog]

OK,Have a pile of rough sawn Rock Maple boards, not furniture grade, but perfect for Hus-Ski cleats. So, looking at the end of a milled cleat, there is the 3/4" height and the 1-1/2" width. Is it better to have the grain parallel to the 3/4" or the 1-1/2" dimension? Or at a 45%? Is there a strength/wear difference? Or just dont think about it too much?

[Barrie2777]

Just saw this post so thought I would pass on my 2 cents worth. The annual rings in a tree represent fast growth (soft) and slow growth (hard) in any species. With some woods there is a big difference in the hardness between these two growth periods. Maple is a species where there is no significant difference between these growth periods so grain orientation should not be your concern. The best cleats will have straight lines on opposite faces and not have any wave or swirls. If the straight lines appear on 4 faces, then you have what is called "rift" cut. There is nothing better or worst about these pieces when building tracks.