Tiger Maple

[Andy London]

With my son away skiing I had a little lathe time this afternoon and decided to turn a couple of tiger maple containers and a curly birch bud vase....really amazes me the beauty we have in domestic woods that I overlooked to some degree doing flatwork.

Thanks for looking.

Andy

[Doug Shepard]

Wow. They're both nice, but that one on the left is just gorgeous.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Gorgeous wood and great craftsmanship!

[Gary Max]

Andy I agree with you so much about our outstanding local woods that I very seldomn buy inports. The funny part is the wood I overlook in the firewood box. It is to the point where I inspect every hunk of wood now.
I really like the tiger maple----I really do not see any good maple around here.

[Fred LeBail]

Andy,
Great looking peices from the firewood pile. I am like Gary and give every stick the" once over" before deciding which pile it goes in.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I like them both but the Tiger maple is stunning. great work!

[Ernie Nyvall]

That is some nice wood, but your craftmanship is really what brought it out. Thanks for the pictures.

Ernie

[Jack Wood]

WOW! Not bad for an afternoons work!

[Tyler Howell]

OOOOOOOO AAAAAAAAA!

[Corvin Alstot]

....really amazes me the beauty we have in domestic woods that I overlooked to some degree doing flatwork.Very nice tiger maple container.
Tiger maple is my favorite for flatwork . . . currently
What kind of wood do you use on flatwork?

[Jerry Clark]

Andy, I think they are both great! The bud vase has nice form -- do you just drill out the inside - down to the base and leave it kinda heavy?

[David Wilson]

Andy
Beautiful work

[Andy London]

Very nice tiger maple container.
Tiger maple is my favorite for flatwork . . . currently
What kind of wood do you use on flatwork?

I have 78 species in the shop at the moment, some I have a lot of like birdseye, all the figured maple, curly birch, curly ash, Cherry etc. But most of my work is in exotics, I import wood from Africa having made some contacts while working there a couple of years ago, I also import wood from Brazil, I have a friend who's brother is a missionary down there and I but some exotics from a local importer.

[Rick Mantell]

Andy:
Any chance you might shae your contacts for the exotics? By the way, how do you usually finish your work(finish)

Rick

[Andy London]

Andy:
Any chance you might shae your contacts for the exotics? By the way, how do you usually finish your work(finish)

Rick

Rick, for the woods out of Brazil you need to order a 1/4 container Min, that's about 4,000 board feet with a min of 500 BF per specie. I generally get a few guys together as it's a lot of cash to tie up, I have a buddy that does decks so we always bring in a bunch of Ipe and Green heart to make the min order. They have a lot of woods we do not see on the commercial market that are very cheap, it's risky as one never knows if the wood will appeal to customers, my luck has been hit and miss, I have 7 or 8 woods people don't like that much so.......I suggest one stick with woods that we can check out images of first.

You will need to check with the dept of agriculture on bring woods in to see what your regulations are, it can be a pain and I've had some woods tied up for months, while it's cheaper, it is a very trying process.

For a finish I use EEE - Ultra Shine, it's a cut and polish paste wax containing Tripoli powder, then generally I use Hut Crystal Coat. If I want to really pop the grain (like Birdseye) I use pure Tung oil but I find that process very time consuming so I have ordered some Waterlox which is tung oil and varnishes. We have 7 or 8 different finishes we use, depending on the wood.

I'll ask my African and Brazilian contacts to post contact information here. If you order out of Africa, get some Pink Ivory, it's crazy expensive to buy it here but about 1/2 to 2/3 buying it direct.

[Steve Inniss]

Andy,
Beautiful wood - beautiful work.

I'm with you, Gary and Fred. I have changed a few working/living methods in order to take advantage of the wood I have readily available.

-Steve