Wood question

some pix from our friends at eBay

Afternoon Steve:

The term "Curly" refers to the grain of a wood. Instead of the normal straight grain, a curly grain has, as implied by the name, a swirly or curly grain. While beautiful to look at, it can be hard to get a good finish on, especially during turning. The swirls have a tendancy to tear out. To counteract this problem, be sure your tools are VERY SHARP and that you work lighty, taking small amounts of wood on each pass. One other thing, you will usually pay a premium for "Curly" woods.

Hope this helps. I'm sure there are others that have worked with it that will give you their thoughts, too.

As usual, "Just one OLD mans opinion." The Other Bruce ==============================================================================

Just stating "curly" maple doesn't tell you a whole lot other than it has chatoyance figure in the grain. Figure occurs in the different types of Maple - Eastern Hard Maple has different characteristics than Western Big Leaf Maple, for example, yet both can have beautiful curl. You really need to know the type of Maple.

Maple sold as being "figured" (curly, flamed, fiddle back, etc.) is usually of the soft variety. It does occur in hard maple but is much less common.

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

Here is my favorite wood pics site.

Nice site. Thanks for the link.

The author appears to take great pains to accurately represent the colours ... and I can verify that his pictures of Rosewood, Santos match a really dramatic brown and black sample that I have.

Okay, but is it hard maple or soft maple? My guess would be soft.

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

Depends on where you get your maple, I'd guess. Over here on the RIGHT : ) side of the state we have lots of curly/tiger/figured maple. Heck the wood pile is full of it.

-- Chuck *#:^) chaz3913(AT)yahoo(DOT)com Anti-spam sig: please remove "NO SPAM" from e-mail address to reply. <

September 11, 2001 - Never Forget

Your guess would be wrong. I live in sugar maple heaven over here. No softs to be found, unless you count the box elder and the few ornamentals people have kicking around. Been tapping and cutting these bad boys nearly all my life. AAMOF, you won't find much in the way of softies in the Adirondacks. Maybe down in the flatlands, but not up here in the bumpy ground.

-- Chuck *#:^) chaz3913(AT)yahoo(DOT)com Anti-spam sig: please remove "NO SPAM" from e-mail address to reply. <

September 11, 2001 - Never Forget

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Chuck) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.capital.net:

I agree. Here in the lower bumps (Catskills) there isn't any soft maple that I've seen other than on the weekender's land. Hank (definitely on the right side of the state)