Shopsmith Forums

I just finished this bowl, maybe plate?, this past weekend. The wood is from a 50 year old maple that was in my front yard that I had to have cut down as the top was dying, and the rest of the tree was not too far behind. It is not quite as evident in this piece, but in other hunks of wood I saved there does appear to be some ambrosia maple characteristics. There also seems to be another type of figuring in this maple. Anyone know what it is? And yes, there is still lots more to come from what was a big maple in my front yard. The tree was planted around the time the house was built.

Very nice! I do see something like a combination of patterns. Mostly I'd call it either 'tiger maple' or 'fiddleback maple' patterning. Most folks only get to see that across some narrow purchased boards, but it looks like your sample shows it on either side of the core of the tree.

It looks to me like you got really lucky and have a tree of "curly maple" wood. Here is a site with lots of photos of curly maple and other figured woods for sale. As you can see, it is considerably more valuable than ordinary hardwood lumber. They claim that such figuring occurs in less than 2% of trees.

Beautiful job on the bowl!

I'm no expert but he other markings look like mineral deposits or slight bark enclusions.Are they the secondary figure you are talking about?The piece turned out very nice overall.

BuckeyeDennis wrote:It looks to me like you got really lucky and have a tree of "curly maple" wood. Here is a site with lots of photos of curly maple and other figured woods for sale. As you can see, it is considerably more valuable than ordinary hardwood lumber. They claim that such figuring occurs in less than 2% of trees.

Beautiful job on the bowl!

Oh, that makes me cry now. I saved as much of the tree as I could store, which was not a whole lot. The rest of the tree was taken by the tree cutter...........................to be mulched.

paulsgreenbarn wrote:I'm no expert but he other markings look like mineral deposits or slight bark enclusions.Are they the secondary figure you are talking about?The piece turned out very nice overall.

If you see the lines that are the grain of the wood, you will notice there is some kind of wavy pattern that runs 90 degrees to the grain lines. That is what I am talking about.

rdavidp wrote:If you see the lines that are the grain of the wood, you will notice there is some kind of wavy pattern that runs 90 degrees to the grain lines. That is what I am talking about.

yeah,no problem.I've built several muzzleloaders with curly Maple.It's everywhere in the North East . Beautiful wood for sure.I must have misread your original post.i thought you were wondring about the dark streaks.Great work either way on the bowl.

I believe what we are seeing are rays in one of the soft maples. They are wide rays (called multi serate) and end in sort of a pointed configuration. Rays in hard maples are also very visible, however they end in more of a bullet shaped (blunt) shape.

Norway maple?