This probably got lost in the pictures above, so I’ll repost it 
The board is still one piece and pretty solid. But when I bend it I can hear some faint cracking noises and see it flexing slightly at the cuts. It doesn’t bend easily by hand, takes a lot of effort with my two hands. But balancing the board with the cutline directly on a stair railing and pushing on both ends, I can see it bend more at the weak spot and hear more of the cracking noises coming from there
Do I dare crack it?? Or should I get out the saw and do this the right way.
So, considering that side view showing the laser going only 1/4 way down… Not sure that cracking this piece along the cuts would result in a clean enough crack. Imagining pits that you can’t sand out…