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Pros: Maple is affordable and ultra-durable. Because it takes dark stains well, maple is often stained to mimic a pricier wood, like cherry or mahogany (which is a controversial pick itself because of deforestation in the regions where it’s harvested).
As you may have guessed by now, maple wood is strong! In fact, maple wood is second in hardness only to hickory wood. This makes it a natural choice for many, many different types of flooring. Maple is the second most popular choice for hardwood floors in the United States, just behind Oak.
Soft maple is generally available in 4/4, 5/4, 6/4 and 8/4 thicknesses. Although the bird’s-eye figure occurs in hard maple, soft maple occasionally provides some curly figure. Retail prices for 4/4 Select & Better soft maple, surfaced on two sides, ranges from $3.25 to $3.90/bf.
At the retail level, expect to pay about $5/bf for 4/4 soft tiger maple and $6/bf for 4/4 hard tiger maple. Prices start to soar with thicker, wide and highly figured stock.
Birdseye Maple has a rare characteristic found in hard maple trees. Only about one percent of all maple trees contain the Birdseye Maple figure.
In curly maple, the grain is wavy through the length of the board. The result is that when the wavy grain is planed flat, it appears to look ruffled, or tiger striped, due to the waviness in the grain.”
Uses. Bird’s eye maple may be expensive, up to several times the cost of ordinary hardwood. When working with bird’s eye wood, it is advisable to take care in what tools are used, so as to prevent grain tearout. Also the more “eyes” there are in lumber, the weaker the wood tends to be.
Comments: Called birdseye maple (sometimes written out as bird’s eye) because the tiny knots in the grain resemble small bird’s eyes. The figure is reportedly caused by unfavorable growing conditions for the tree. Being tiny knots, the birdseye figure is most noticeable and pronounced on flatsawn pieces of lumber.
The average selling price of a bird’s-eye maple log is in the range of $20,000 to $30,000 per 1,000 board feet.
Birdseye maple, one of the rarest kinds of wood on the planet, has a distinctive pattern that looks like tiny, swirling eyes disrupting the smooth lines of grain. Birds-eye maple is a form of figured hard maple, it is not a variety or species of maple. What actually causes the phenomenon is still unknown.
Tiger maple is an exotic hardwood with a distinctive wavy or curly pattern that can resemble tiger stripes. Also known as curly maple or flame maple, tiger maple’s durability and its array of patterns make the wood a popular with woodworkers who want to design a unique, decorative piece of furniture.
Bird’s eye maple may be expensive, up to several times the cost of ordinary hardwood. When working with bird’s eye wood, it is advisable to take care in what tools are used, so as to prevent grain tearout. Also the more “eyes” there are in lumber, the weaker the wood tends to be.
Birdseye maple is highly prized by woodworkers. Birdseye maple can have a smooth, glassy look and make for a fast-feeling fingerboard. Birdseye maple does work well for guitar tops, however book matching can be difficult because the structure of the figure changes as it runs through the log.
HARD MAPLE WOOD Birdseye Maple is Sugar Maple with a unique figure pattern giving it the appearance of eyes. A board must be flat sawn to show this figure. Birdseye Maple is a very rare mutation of a common hardwood tree. The top figure usually comes from the northern most range of the species.
Flat Sawn will also show more figuring on the side of the neck if it is for instance flame maple. Some builders exclusively use Flat Sawn, and others only use Quarter Sawn.
Shipping Additional
Board-Feet | ||
---|---|---|
< 10 | 10 – 99 | |
5/4 Hard Maple (Sel & Btr, #1 & 2 White, S2S to 1-3/16) | $6.60 | $5.95 |
8/4 Hard Maple (1 Com, #1 & 2 White, Rough) | $4.75 | $4.30 |
8/4 Hard Maple (Sel & Btr, #1 & 2 White, Rough) | $7.20 | $6.50 |
Spalted maple is a work of nature’s art that happens when fungus invades maple creating a vein pattern. There is no other pattern like it in nature. Spalted maple can be found in either hard maple or soft maple – the spalt will occur in either species.
Since spalted wood is a piece of wood that has begun to rot, it’s important that you stop the spread of the fungus before the piece begins to lose its strength. In order to stop spalting from continuing, you simply place the piece of wood in a dry location and prevent moisture from getting to it.
Spalted Maple