Anyone seen maple like this?

[Vg3200p]

Anyone seen maple with wavy woodgrain like this? Normally I see this in Bradford pear. Before I split the round I was thinking it was silver maple.

 

[NickW]

Yes, in silver maple.

 

[Vg3200p]

Good to know man never seen it in maple before. Looks cool

 

[kennyp2339]

Spalted lines (the black lines) happens when a leader dies still connected to the tree, as far as the waves, I'm guessing the tree with either in a residential yard, front line of a tree line or in a field, maple will grow with a twist which is created from prevailing winds.

 

[stoveliker]

I have had this too. But in ash and oak. Mostly from the bottom of the trunk. In my case not twisted (split straight) but very wavy.

 

[Vg3200p]

I have had this too. But in ash and oak. Mostly from the bottom of the trunk. In my case not twisted (split straight) but very wavy.

Yes this split straight. I've seen alot of Bradford pear like this and always assumed the wavy structure was why those trees snap so easy. Don't know where in the tree this was from. I scavenge at a huge dump lot from an aborist

 

[stoveliker]

If you have rounds left, and have a friend who turns wood, they may be interested..

 

[Vg3200p]

If you have rounds left, and have a friend who turns wood, they may be interested..

There is a lifetime worth of all different kinds of wood where I scavenge. If your ever down Indiana way I can buck you up some

 

[gzecc]

AKA curly maple.

 

[stoveliker]

Lol. Thanks. Sharing the rich life.

My thinking is that if I have a strange looking piece, I can enjoy it for 2 hrs while it burns, or I can make another fellow happy bay allowing him to play for 20 hrs. I did so once, and the guy drove an hour to me to pick the pieces up (free on craigslist).

Anyway, I'll remember you if I ever m in Indiana and need wood

 

[NickW]

I also donate "interesting" stuff to a lady who runs a sawmill and had wood turners. I've given her a few nice cherry logs, cherry stumps, cherry burls, cherry and birch "crotches"... She mills stuff for me at half rate now. I have cherry timbers for a mantle, cherry & walnut slabs and pine drying for 2x4's. 😁

 

[bigealta]

Yup Curly maple, Spalted maple and maybe some tiger maple there too?

 

[johneh]

Maple that is figured is lumped into the name figured Maple
This includes Birds eye and Tiger
Many years ago had enough birdseye Maple to make 3 dining room table tops
sold for a lot of money then.

 

[peakbagger]

It is not a variety of maple, rather it is a genetic defect and also caused by stress in a tree. It can appear in all types of maple trees and on occasion other types of trees like birch, elm and ash much rarer. I think silver and red maple grow quicker so its seen a bit more often.

If a logger finds a straight tree with figure with the right diameter, they can call a special buyer who will pay them a bundle for one fresh cut tree. The buyer then will cut into into blanks to be sold for making music instruments. One outstanding tree can yield thousands of dollars of profit. When I worked in a pulp mill we had huge wood yard. We had our own logging crews and during md season when they could not be out in the woods, they would go out in wood yard and look for figured wood that had been inadvertently sold as pulp wood. They would set it aside and it would get sold to figured wood buyer to cover the payroll.

I met a luthier (person who makes stringed instruments) once at his shop in VT, he had a barn full of figured wood he had hand selected and was air drying for years for his business.

If its crotch wood, its less valuable and once it gets old enough to show spalting, It still is in demand by turners. The board stock is notorious to process due to grain tear out. I met the head sawyer for an Ethan Allen mill in Maine once, they treated figured wood as a defect and diverted it to the boiler fuel pile as it didnt process well on their regular equipment. He hand carved and played wooden spoons (a French-Canadian traditional instrument) and would grab a "defect" on occasion and bring them home to carve up spoons. He had chicken coop full of boards and at some point he decided to sell it. I offered to buy it. At the last minute he decided to keep a lot of the birdseye but I got a pile of curly and tiger. I really could not deal with it until I got a spiral carbide head for my jointer as regular straight knives tear out the grain. Its miserable stuff as when it dries, it twists. Eventually it stabilizes and then it can be processed.

 

[Corey]

Have seen that a few times. Believe it was actually in silver maple when I saw it. As they said above - tree took some damage and that was the growth around the damaged area.

As I recall, it all burned just fine...just left normal ash behind, it wasn't squiggly, too! lol