Curly Maple Question

[Darrin Davis]

I'm trying to plane down some curly maple for the raised panel part of a walnut gun cabinet. This is the first time I've dealt with curly maple and I'm finding out that some peices plane smooth and other peices really tear up going through the planer. Looking at the edge of the boards I can see the the grain is wavy and I'm assuming that the part that is being torn is end grain that waves in and out of the face of the wood. Has anyone dealt with this and if so how do you get around it or will I have to resort to running them through the drum sander to get around this problem?

The person who gave me this wood calls it Curly Maple. I've seen Norm call this Tiger Maple on NYW.

Thanks!

[John Keeton]

Darrin, depending on the sharpness of your planer, you can sometimes take very light passes and avoid some tearout, but it is "hit and miss" so to speak. The drum sander would certainly be better. I am afraid you will run into similar issues when you raise the panels, so take very light multiple passes. I have trouble with my planer on curly maple, but I understand those that have the byrd heads seem to have better luck.

If you have available a very sharp, high angle handplane, that is by far the best way to smooth the curly maple. I use a Veritas BU smoother with a 50* blade and get a glass finish.

It is beautiful stuff, and when paired up with walnut, there is no better combination IMHO. Hope it works out well for you.

BTW, curly maple, tiger maple, flame maple, fiddleback maple are all the same thing. Some folks use the terms to describe tightness of curl with fiddleback being the tightest, though that is certainly not universal.

[John Coloccia]

Darrin, depending on the sharpness of your planer, you can sometimes take very light passes and avoid some tearout, but it is "hit and miss" so to speak. The drum sander would certainly be better. I am afraid you will run into similar issues when you raise the panels, so take very light multiple passes. I have trouble with my planer on curly maple, but I understand those that have the byrd heads seem to have better luck.

If you have available a very sharp, high angle handplane, that is by far the best way to smooth the curly maple. I use a Veritas BU smoother with a 50* blade and get a glass finish.

It is beautiful stuff, and when paired up with walnut, there is no better combination IMHO. Hope it works out well for you.

+1

This stuff (curly, flamed, fiddleback, tiger....whatever we call it) can be absolutely miserable to work with, and then you get some pieces that machine like butter. I usually plane it to get it close, taking very small bites. Then if it needs to be super flat, I put it through my drum sander. If it just needs to be smooth, I'll scrape it. Who am I kidding...I just put those through the drum sander also, because it only takes a second to finish it off. LOL.

I've been meaning to try a high angle plane for these kinds of figured woods but haven't gotten around to it. I'm also meaning to try one of those scraper planes.

edit: I just noticed that you added the "flamed and fiddleback" nomenclatures too. :D

[doug faist]

I'll second what John said. Really, really light cuts help with the tear out. I have always resorted to a drum sander and then a freshly sharpened cabinet scraper for a final finish. Curly maple finishes very well and is well worth the time and effort you put in.

Have fun with your project.

Doug

[David Peterson MN]

I just cut up a bunch of curly maple today and I had success with LIGHT passes on my jointer for the face and edges. I finished the boards off then with my drum sander. I got excellent results.

Good luck!

[Myk Rian]

I've always had problems with curly maple also. I put a shelix head in the planer and it does a beautiful job on it now.

[glenn bradley]

If you have the drum sander I would sure do that. I am using some birdseye on a project right now. The carbide insert head on my jointer leaves it smooth as can be but I have to plane it thick (three knife, single speed planer) and hand plane it down about half the time.

[Ken Platt]

It's always the magnificent woods that give us the heartburn at the planer, isn't it? Anyhow, I used to moisten the boards before planing and found that that helped a lot. I've heard that some use water, but I worry about rust damage to the planer, so I use mineral spirits. I have it in a squirt bottle, and give a liberal coating to the spots that seem likely to tear out worst, let it soak in for a bit.

Since I got a drum sander, that's my go-to for these woods. I'm not that good with hand planes...

Ken

[Joe Leigh]

My dining room suite in the Woodworking Projects section uses a ton of curly and birdeye maple. Very light passes on the planer or belt/drum sanding. I also had a lot of luck using a hand scraper. Patience.

[Michael Schwartz]

Dampening the wood slightly can help, its a good idea to wipe off your machine and cutter-head (Unplug first) as well afterwords.

Plane the face of the board on the jointer with fresh knives and run it over really really really slow.

If your machinery just is not up to the task you might want to call around and see if there are any cabinet shops with a wide belt/drum sander or with helical carbide cutter-heads in there planer.

[David Christopher]

this is how I tame curly maple, 001" at a time

[Richard M. Wolfe]

As has been said about planing take light passes with very sharp knives. Also if possible running the wood through the planer with the curl at an angle to the knives may help. A lot of sanding is the ultimate solution and if a fairly large thickness is taken drum sanding is the way to go. At least I can't hand sand a board evenly :o.

[willie sobat]

I spray the stock down with water for the final passes through the planer, then wipe off the excess with a rag. Light passes are also necessary. This will not eliminate tearout but with care it will help a lot. The process is painstaking but worth it for the return figured maple can give.

[Bill Leonard]

I recently did a complete kitchen out of curly maple and "solved" ( I use the term loosely) the tear out by, as others have said, light passes. I also found it very helpful to send the wood through the planer at an angle and orient the grain with cutter as you would on the jointer. I did not find wetting the wood of much help. Over the course of the project I planed approximately 800bf of curly maple. Sharpened the planer knives twice and used two WWII blades. It's really a difficult wood to work with , but well worth the effort.
Bill

[Darrin Davis]

Oh great! I wasn't even thinking about what would happen when I used my raised panel bit. I guess I will do a little bit at a time.

[Carl Hill]

I've planed a lot of curly maple over the years. I've found that when I have a piece that chips out as I send it through the planer, I turn it end for end ( same side up ), send it back through, then turn it end for end ( not flip it over ) to do the other side. It has always worked great for me.
Hope that makes sense, I reread it and I'm not sure what I said.:)

Carl

[Eddie Darby]

There is always back bevels on the planer blades.
They only need to be a few degrees, and just wider than the depth of shaving you are taking.
I have an extra set of blades just for these occasions.

[Dick Strauss]

Woodmaster...variable speed...enough said