Question on soft maple

4/21/21, 6:05 PM #1

Barry Irby
Member
Offline
13,125 posts

Registered: 1/27/05

Question on soft maple

Barry Irby

I have just acquired some soft maple from a tree service that took down the tree in my neighbors yard. They chipped everything they could with an 18" chipper and brought me the rest. There are some pieces that have what used to be called crotches but to avoid hurting anyone's feelings we call them branch unions now.

Does maple have a "feather" or other crotch figure worth pursuing? I may cut some of this into bowl blanks.

(This is not the same maple in the previous post)

Re: Question on soft maple

4/21/21, 6:13 PM #2

Yonak
Member
Offline
1,372 posts

Registered: 1/8/07

Re: Question on soft maple

Yonak

Soft maple can be some of the most figured wood of all. Sometimes you don't know until you cut into it.

Re: Question on soft maple

4/21/21, 9:00 PM #3

John Jardin
Member
Offline
113 posts

Registered: 6/4/15

Re: Question on soft maple

John Jardin

If a furniture piece is to be painted, soft maple is a good choice (I got this advise from Bill Crozier; a RISD graduate who studied under Tage Frid)

Re: Question on soft maple

4/22/21, 12:11 AM #4

johnv
Guest

Re: Question on soft maple

johnv

and can have some dramatic spalting./

Re: Question on soft maple

4/22/21, 12:35 AM #5

don stephan
Member
Offline
1,483 posts

Registered: 11/1/12

Re: Question on soft maple

Don Stephan

The last time I sawed a large fork for platters, I carefully marked co-planer cut lines on the bottom and the branches, sawed out the pith, and then trimmed to an octagon blank after seeing the actual length of the feather figure. I am not able to predict the length of the feather figure.

Question on soft maple

Posts