Tiger maple

[Lasse Hilbrandt]

I just recieved a really nice hand saw kit from Ron Bontz. The handles I have to finish my self. I finished one of them and its beautiful tiger maple.

It seems like tiger or curly maple is not that uncommon in the states. Here in Denmark we have maple too, but I have never heard about tiger mable before I got to this site.

Is there anyway one can see on a living tree that it would have tiger figure before one fell it ? or is it just something one can find out from the end grain when you have fell it ?

[Lee Schierer]

Sometimes if you remove the bark, you can see ripples in the surface of the tree, but there is no assurance that the rest of the tree will have the curly grain.

[Chris Fournier]

You can see the ripples of tiger stripe at the root collar many times but it is very rare to see it up from the ground beyond that. A lot of maples have some figure at the root collar, farmers around here call it "stump wood". I went to see one standing soft maple once and it had the best figure I have ever seen and you could see the through in the bark. The diameter was 42" 4 feet from the ground. I bought the tree and sawed it up for musical instruments. A rare three point shot for me and figured maple! Figured maple is the best isn't?