Curly Maple: Hard vs Soft

[Eric Thumb]

268159

I recently started experimenting with curly maple and was wondering if there was generally a difference in the "curl" between the two. The box on the left is hard maple, the one on the right is soft maple.

Both are finished with super blonde shellac and both were dyed with a brownish transtint dye mixed with water and then sanded back. Although I'm not sure the dye plays any part in this because I believe I sanded it all off. I had hoped that the dye would stay in the curl but by the time I had finished sanding it from the "flat" part there did not appear to be any showing in the curl either.

Anyway these were my first two boards, one soft maple and the other hard maple and there is a noticable difference between the two after finishing. Before finishing they looked almost identical. I was wondering if the soft maple does not generally show the curl as much as hard maple or if it just happened to be the board that I picked.

Also, is there a way to tell at the sawmill if a board will show curl or not? I had thought about taking a water bottle with me but didn't know if that would do much good.

Thanks

[Andrew Hughes]

Hi ,Eric nice boxes like the simple look, seems like I see more figure in soft maple than hard,esp quilting it can frustrating working with highly figured woods really got to pay attention to how it pops in light.I have made boxes that have beautiful sides and the top is a dud.Because I lost track and turned it the wrong way.I know I didn't answer your question maybe only Mother Nature can.

[Richard Coers]

No difference in the "curl" between hard and soft, only difference because of way any tree grows. One tree very intense, next little. If you look at a raw log, with the bark off, you will see blisters and wrinkles on the surface. Cut through those and you get curl. So you are actually looking at wood cells that are climbing up and down in the wood. Some places more like end grain, some more like long grain. So you will be getting more dye penetration in the end grain type pores in some places, some places better dye penetration because of soft maple versus hard maple. A lightly damp cloth on finish sanded maple will swell the cells and allow for better dye penetration too. No hard rules with wood figure since no two trees are alike.

[Alden Miller]

When I am looking for curly maple at the planing mill I usually find I can pick a board with a lot of curl by looking at the edge of the board. That at least gives me my first indication of how much curl it has. Then I dig it out of the pile and take a look at the face from a couple different angles. Usually even in the rough cut state you can get an indication of how much curl you will find. You can also take a small block plane and (with their permission) take a couple of shavings off to see what the wood looks like.

-Alden

[Thomas love]

I find more curl in soft as opposed to hard268208 Very nice boxes , how do they open?

[Eric Thumb]

I suspected that it was an individual tree thing. Now I just need to figure out what to look for I suppose. The hard maple board did have more end grain like curl and the soft maple board was more "wavy" which would explain why the hard maple showed the curl better by absorbing the shellac. I was really expecting the soft maple board to be stellar though. Just looking at it at the sawmill I could see the curl from 25 feet away.

The box is a lift lid box but I have not decided yet on what to use as a handle. I initially started making these 268227
and thought about putting a bow on the boxes but my wife said that the new boxes with the rounded sides and figured wood looked too modern for the bow so I'm looking into other options.

Thanks for the replies.