What puts the curl in curly maple?

[Brian Kent]

What makes some maple (or any other curly wood) curly?

[William Bachtel]

I think E Bay is behind it.

[Roger Chandler]

Brian.......we had a certified arborist [who is also a turner] come to our club for a demo, especially speaking to figure in wood, and getting the most bang out of a log or crotch piece. He said that the best figure is usually near the base of the tree, and that is because of pressure that builds in the grain as the tree grows and the weight exerted in the structure as it grows.......also, the twisting of the grain rings can also impart curl and other type grain features,

He owns a tree service and calls members of the club at times with pieces of trees he thinks would be a shame to send to the landfill.

[Michael Mason]

From what I could read when I got the really curly tree I worked up a few months ago, nobody really knows what causes it. It cannot be from pressure from the weight of the tree, because the one I got was just as curly on the smaller sections 50ft off the ground as it was at the bottom.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?230002-Very-Curly-Ambrosia-Maple&highlight=very+curly+maple

[Roger Chandler]

From what I could read when I got the really curly tree I worked up a few months ago, nobody really knows what causes it. It cannot be from pressure from the weight of the tree, because the one I got was just as curly on the smaller sections 50ft off the ground as it was at the bottom.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?230002-Very-Curly-Ambrosia-Maple&highlight=very+curly+maple

Micheal.........no one said that curl could only exist at the bottom of a tree, but it is the place it is most frequently found, according to the arborist we had do the demo. I have seen a number of trees where there was curl in a limb, but have also seen a number of trees where the curl is most concentrated in the few feet above the base. I have cut down lots of trees over the years and have found what the arborist said to be true.

We used to have a sugar maple in the front of our house, and it forked off the main trunk in 4 directions.......in that tree two of the biggest off shoots had curl in the base near where they forked and two didn't. That main crotch where the 4 off shoots came off the main trunk was about 7 ft. off the ground, and the entire trunk had curl in it. It was about 32" in diameter near the base. It had to come down because it was starting to make the foundation crack on the house. I think some varieties of maple, especially are more prone to curl than others.

In your link, you show a wonderful exception to the norm..........some trees just have it all over, and when you find a treasure like that, well, it is like finding gold! That was some beautiful wood!

[John Spitters]

It has been proven ( through the planting of seeds from existing trees known to have high figure of curl, quilting etc. ) that genetics have a lot to do with it.
It is also true that in some of the very old and heavy Big Leaf Maple trees that they will possess a great deal of figure in the lower portion of the trunk due to the stress of all the upper weight of the massive tree, this figure can be quite intense if you come across one of these old and massive trees that have the center of the trunk rotted out, which is quite common in old maples.

[Michael Mason]

Roger, I didn't mean any harm. I was just trying to answer the question of what caused it.

Yes, my tree was very nice, I am proud to have found it. The rough outs should be getting dry before much longer so I can't wait to see what they end up looking like.

[Thom Sturgill]

Curl is also refered to as compression grain. A large limb will be curly on the bottom and straight grained (tension grain) on the top. Growing on the side of a hill or in consistent winds can cause compression grain on one side of a tree. It has been said that Stradivari, the violin maker, owned the side of a mountain where he would pick which tree to cut and specify how it was to be cut to get the best curl on the maple and the straightest grain for the top wood.

[Reed Gray]

As near as I can tell, there are two types of ripple/curl. One is reaction wood where it reacts to stresses in the tree like the compression wood under where a branch comes in to the main trunk. Think of it as doing an accordion thing so the fiber can stretch and compress as the wind causes swaying. There is almost always similar compression in the buttress part of the tree where the trunk angles out away from the main part for support. Crotch figure can do the same thing. Trees growing on the side of a hill do have stress, but from talking to an old logger, they need wind as well to develop that type of ripple. Now, the other type, which I think of it being more the quilted type and bigger wave type of ripple seems to have a lot of genetics behind it. If nothing else, some will tend to have it more than others, and it can be pretty consistent along a very long trunk rather than just in spots. Birds eye (not the spots in burl, but the dimples that look like percussion cones) that is found mostly in maple, seems to be genetic, but when they take cuttings/clones from the parent tree, some develop the birds eye, some don't. I read a fascinating article about it in an old Fine Woodworking magazine. The only common thing was that all that had it were 'stressed' trees. So, some times it is genetic, some times nature, and some times, just because.... Like a couple of big crotches I got. One was a walnut. The branches were 20 inch diameter. No feather at all, and I mean none. It was deep in a valley, and surrounded by big fir trees.

robo hippy

[Jeffrey J Smith]

Don't know if they've ever figured out the cause, but it seems you can spot it on some woods. I've seen it said that curly figure is apparent in the' corrugated' look of the bark. I have a hard time spotting it in the tree, but I have noticed that quilting seems to give the bark a 'woven' texture - at least in the big leaf maple we get up our way.
316059316060

[robert baccus]

I have even found heavy quilting/curly on very old tupelo gum trees that showed on the bark. Try cutting a 9' diameter tree with only 4" of solid wood around the hollow. Terrifing yeah.

[Dan Hintz]

I have even found heavy quilting/curly on very old tupelo gum trees that showed on the bark. Try cutting a 9' diameter tree with only 4" of solid wood around the hollow. Terrifing yeah.

I think you were cutting a straw, not a tree ;)

[Al Weber]

I think this is correct as the NH town I lived in had a significant percentage of curly soft maple. The local loggers told me they had noted this for years.

[robert baccus]

My buddy was afraid our 20" saw was way too small. I assured him a big pocket knife would suffice. It didn't explode or collapse somehow.