Replies

1. 
   johnhardy | Sep 04, 2003 02:24am | #1

   This sounds like a good price, *if the wood is truly dry*. 4/4 lumber would take about 4 years to air dry, by my rule of thumb. You could ask that one board be crosscut and then you could use your moisture meter to check the middle of the cut. If it's very much different than the outside or the ends of the board, it's not really dry.

   My guess is that it's not really dry, at that price.

   You'll also find that your Performax does a really good job of abrasive planing the curly maple. A planer will cause chips because the grain is so gnarly. Just take it slow on the Performax.

   John

1. 
   Jeff | Sep 04, 2003 03:23am | #2

   Thanks John

   Knowing Pete (who owns the Mill), the wood might have been sitting there for years or just cut this summer.  I'll have to ask, he'll know the history (he does the cutting)and how long the pile has been drying.

   Any ideas on the hardness, etc. compared to regular maple?

   I've not familiar with it, just the regular maple from the yard.

   Appearance, quality, etc. will have to hold till I see it.

   Jeff

1. 
   johnhardy | Sep 04, 2003 09:06am | #3

   I'm not sure about hardness. Curly maple is gorgeous, and I wouldn't worry about hardness unless you're making this into a table top or something that would get direct use and may be prone to "denting" (like pine ... ugh).

   I use curly maple in my chess boards and I look for good curl and lots of nice white color. Get that, and you can't go wrong.

   John

1. 
   Jeff | Sep 04, 2003 03:18pm | #4

   Great

   Thats what I needed to know.

   Now, if it would stop raining long enough for me to get out of here and check it out.

   Thanks John.

   Jeff

2. 
   AlanTurner | Sep 04, 2003 05:37pm | #5

   I use both soft and hard maple.  The soft maple works beautifully, but is both softer and lighter in weight than the hard.  You will find that a very sharp smoothing plane, with a tight mouth, will plane soft curly maple without tear out if you are careful.  I certainly don't think that soft maple is too soft for general furn making.  It is a common secondary wood in upholstered furniture since it will take the tacks well, whereas hard maple is just too hard for these tacks.  $2.50 a b.f. is a good price for 4/4 soft curly maple, if it is dry.  Good luck on that issue.

   Alan

1. 
   Jeff | Sep 04, 2003 11:38pm | #6

   Thanks Alan

   I don't know how dry yet.

   But that helps with me wondering about the differance in hardness.

   I hope to talk to the Mill owner tonight at a meeting.

   Jeff

1. 
   DougF | Sep 05, 2003 12:10am | #8

   Jeff,

   I recently finshed two chest of drawers using resawn soft curly maple for the drawer front veneers.  This was the first time I worked with soft curly and I was disappointed in the results, partly because I worked it like hard maple - my fault.  If it is soft maple, you may need to use a filler since I found areas of the wood were slightly opened-grained.  The final sanding prior to finishing will require and a highly grit than you might normally use for hard maple. 

   I absolutely second the warning aginst tear-out: after several attempts at planning the material using various methods including dampening the wood first and using new planner blades, I finally smoothed the backs, glued-up the drawer fronts and then took them to a cabinet shop and they ran them through the thickness sanders.  Depending on how you are using the wood, 4x4 will keep you busy with glue-ups.  Good luck.

   Doug

2. 
   Jeff | Sep 05, 2003 04:31am | #10

   Doug

   Thank you for the info.

   I'm getting a great education here on Curly Maple.

   I hope to look at it tomarrow.

   Now I at least have a better idea what to look for.

   Realized I've always used regular hard Maple from the yard.

   Jeff

2. 
   DaveHeinlein | Sep 05, 2003 12:00am | #7

   Curly Maple comes in different grades, just like birdseye. The tight, 1/4"spaced fiddleback is worth a lot more than light, randomly spaced curl. Tiger Maple is somewhere in between.

   Curl happens closer to the outer edge of a tree, so if your 4x4's have the pith in them, they might not be all that great. $2.50 is not a bad price for *plain* dry soft Maple.

   Here is what I call primo tiger Maple, some of it might be classified as fiddleback.

   
1. 
   Jeff | Sep 05, 2003 04:28am | #9

   Looks great.

   Thanks for the info.

   Jeff

3. 
   Valsi | Sep 05, 2003 06:13am | #11

   ARE YOU GUYS ALL NUTS ???

   Man, I would buy any kind of wood for $2.50, let alone Curly Maple.

   out here in the L A area, i don't think you can get anything for that price !

1. 
   Jeff | Sep 05, 2003 02:16pm | #12

   Vals

   I suppose it depends on your point of view and location.

   I'd give my eye teeth for some of the wood people find locally that I pay a fortune for up here.

   I can pick up local Cherry, Oak, Maple, Hemlock, Etc. and softwoods, but some things just aren't available or decent.

   Jeff

2. 
   RRusso | Sep 06, 2003 08:26am | #13

   I agree. Where I'm at, even Poplar's about 2 bucks a bf. Oak is around 4-5, and mah., cherry, walnut, etc. ranges from 7-10. Add a buck or two for figured stuff. These are dealer prices, of course. I can go to my mill guy and pay anywhere from a third to half the dealer prices, but it's a crap shoot as to what he has on hand. Plus, I may have to wait 2-4 weeks for it to sit in the kiln.

   On the other hand, 4x4 stuff is more prone to warping, checking, splitting, etc., so...he may want to unload the stuff at a seemingly rock bottom price before it does those things...

1. 
   Jeff | Sep 06, 2003 02:17pm | #14

   Good point

   Thanks

   Jeff

4. 
   aew | Sep 06, 2003 04:25pm | #15

   $2.50 for curly maple is a reasonable price if it is dry like all the others have said.  However, curly maple in NH is graded A, B, or C dependent on color and figure.  If it is not highly figured, it is worth less.  I have purchased it direct from the mills for between $1.50 and about $3 but if it is rough sawn and not planed, it is hard to know what you are getting.  You can get some idea of the grain in rough sawn but the curl is sometimes not very uniform so you need to look carefully.  Maybe you can get the mill to do a rough planing to get an idea of what it looks like. 

   In addition to all the other tips on working with it, it is useful to wet the board surface slightly before power planing.  Don't even try to plane it using a low angle plane.  In general, the higher the angle the better and all the other tips on throat opening, etc. are right on the money.

   I just finished a tea table from curly maple and although it takes patience to work it, it is well worth it.  In general it is not so soft it cannot be used.  I am currently building a computer desk with it (top only-milk painted legs and frame) and the boards I have are not soft enough to dent easily.

   Good Luck.

1. 
   Jeff | Sep 07, 2003 01:04am | #16

   Good to know

   Thanks AEW.

   Jeff