KD lumber run #2 - 4/4 QSWO & 8/4 Soft Maple

[TV]

Jeff,

Thanks for the info. Would you put me down for 15 bdft of 8/4 Soft Maple?

Thanks.

tv

 

[jeff...]

Jeff,

Thanks for the info. Would you put me down for 15 bdft of 8/4 Soft Maple?

Thanks.

tv

Gotcha - Thanks

 

[mkepke]

I've seen a lot of people get the two confused. Based on my understanding of maple lumber. Hard maple is the heart wood of a sugar maple tree, the sap wood of sugar maple is considered soft maple. It takes one huge sugar maple to get wide board hard maple because only the heart wood is considered hard maple. While soft maple includes the heart and sap of several different kinds of maple like red, silver, black maples or just the sap wood of sugar maple. This is the reason you mainly see hard maple in short narrow strips like on a bowling ally floor or laminated tops. While maple furniture tends to be soft maple because wider clearer boards are easier to come by. There are so many different kinds of maple trees out there it's real hard to determine what's what. Unless you got DaveO with you to identify them for you :-D

Thanks

IME, all the lumber from a sugar or black maple is considered "hard maple" - heartwood or sapwood. The heartwood is just undesirable due to the color.

Soft-maple is anything that isn't a hard maple.

I think you tend to see wider boards from soft maples because: i) they tend to have more sapwood (the desirable part) to heartwood as compared to the hard maples and ii) tend to be faster-growing/more plentiful.

Maple-strip anything is most likely IMO a result of the wood being relatively unstable (it moves) and industry's desire to keep costs low by optimizing yield. No need to use 20" curly boards if people are just going to drop bowling balls on them.

Is your soft maple clear - clear enough for full-size interior doors ?

-Mark

 

[jeff...]

Mark, Thanks for the info I'll pass that by a few folks that have been sawing for a while. But I really don't think you'll want any of this maple, it's some ole nasty spalted and ambrosia beetle ridden maple.

Thanks

 

[jeff...]

Few pics...

the QSWO is on the left and middle there's about 300BF there and about 180 BF of QS black locust (pumpkin wood) on the right. Yep it's true black locust does glow in the dark under a black light at least mine does :-D.

Here's a close up of one of the 10' long 12" wide pieces of QSWO, it's got some nice ray flake / fleck going on.

I hit a slug (bullet) in one of the quarters in the 10' log so I just bucked the quarter back to 8' instead of messing with it. So some of the 8' long QSWO is two different trees but I marked the boards from the slug quarter as L2 so when you guys come pick up your lumber you'll be able to pick it our by log for consistency in grain and color.

Thanks

 

[woodArtz]

Spalted!? Did someone say spalted!? I hope your keeping some "scraps" for us turners :-D. I'll take three or four big bowl blanks and some pen blank stock please... :lol:. And what's all this about ambrosia...???

 

[jeff...]

IME, all the lumber from a sugar or black maple is considered "hard maple" - heartwood or sapwood. The heartwood is just undesirable due to the color.

Soft-maple is anything that isn't a hard maple.

I think you tend to see wider boards from soft maples because: i) they tend to have more sapwood (the desirable part) to heartwood as compared to the hard maples and ii) tend to be faster-growing/more plentiful.

Maple-strip anything is most likely IMO a result of the wood being relatively unstable (it moves) and industry's desire to keep costs low by optimizing yield. No need to use 20" curly boards if people are just going to drop bowling balls on them.

Is your soft maple clear - clear enough for full-size interior doors ?

-Mark

Mark - Did you see this thread?

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/showthread.php?t=9789

Thanks

 

[jeff...]

Spalted!? Did someone say spalted!? I hope your keeping some "scraps" for us turners :-D. I'll take three or four big bowl blanks and some pen blank stock please... :lol:. And what's all this about ambrosia...???

Spalting - tiss the season I'll try and find some good and ripe maple to saw :-D

 

[jeff...]

Sawed up the first maple log today - it is good and spalted and also has quite a bit of ambrosia markings. Don I think it'll make an pretty rocker once kiln dried. some of the boards are 16" wide and you should have a few to book match the seat.

Thanks

 

[TV]

Jeff,

Did you happen to snap a pic or two of the spalted soft maple? Just curious

Thanks.

tv

 

[jeff...]

No I forgot to take my camera with me to the log yard this afternoon, but I will try and get a few pics.

 

[Touchwood]

Sawed up the first maple log today - it is good and spalted and also has quite a bit of ambrosia markings. Don I think it'll make an pretty rocker once kiln dried. some of the boards are 16" wide and you should have a few to book match the seat.

Thanks

Jeff,

If the ambrosia looks good to you , please set aside 100BF or so of the 8/4 stuff. Book match is even better.

Sounds great,

Don:icon_thum

 

[jeff...]

I have purposely been holding out on maple pictures, only because every time I look at the boards I want to keep looking at them. I guess I'm a real sucker when it comes to spalted lumber. There is a pretty good assortment ranging from white new maple wood to old and splated. Some of the old spalted logs has some interesting ambrosia and one log is a little curly. Got 8/4 boards ranging from 6 to 10' long and from 6 to 16" wide, it's a real mixed bag... I think I rounded up all the maple from the log yard but I'm going to hunt for some more because I only got 400 BF :crybaby2:. I know a few of these logs had to have been hanging around more than a year, something doesn't spalt like that in just one year. If anything else you should at least pick up one board and resaw into pen blanks or have it haning around for inlay. Honestly some of the logs don't get much more spalted and still be solid as this.

Thanks

 

[woodArtz]

Ok, you talked me into it ;-). I'll take a nice spalted, curly, burly, wormy, ambrosia-y board :-D. I reckon in the 15 to 20 bf range oughta do it. That'll make plenty of nice pens and stoppers I hope . I might even do a platter if it's wide enough.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[jeff...]

Ok, you talked me into it ;-). I'll take a nice spalted, curly, burly, wormy, ambrosia-y board :-D. I reckon in the 15 to 20 bf range oughta do it. That'll make plenty of nice pens and stoppers I hope . I might even do a platter if it's wide enough.

Thanks,
Bob

Should have plenty for you to choose from - Thanks Bob.

 

[sediener]

I'll take 40 bdft of some of that nice 8/4 maple. Just don't tell my wife....

When will this be ready?

- Steve

 

[jeff...]

It'll be going in the kiln next weekend 08/25/07 then Scott dries it as quick and safe as he can.

Thanks

 

[ScottM]

Now when you guys are finished dividing this lot up, if there are any shorts (12" or more) please keep me on mind. Especially the splated woods. They are perfect for my scroll saw projects. Any thickness.

 

[jeff...]

Ted found me two more maple logs that I sawed this evening. One was right clear and pretty free of ambrosia and other markings. The other one was what I would call medium ambrosia. Anyways that adds another 150 BF of 8/4 to what is already there. I think you guys will be pleased there is a wide selection to choose from.

I updated the first post in this thread with the new board foot quantity.

Scott can I bring this load by Saturday the 18th so we can put it on sticks or one of your kiln carts?

Thanks

 

[jeff...]

Here's a few pics of the maple for this run.

New "white" wood is on mostly on the top and the spalted on the bottom covered by some 4/4 flitches. We still need to get the QSWO and QSBL on the trailer, we'll do that this evening.

Thanks