What to do with all this figured wood!?

[Bryan Hall]

Happy Holidays everyone!

I was at the lumber yard picking up sheet goods and just had to grab some of the heavily quilted maple that had shown up recently. I got home and went to put it away and realized... I buy too much figured wood! I'm just a sucker for it. I wish I could walk by and not pick it up but there's something "rare and special" about it to me and I always convince myself that buying another board or two will be useful. After several years of "just one more piece" I've now got several walls, floor to ceiling, of maple, walnut, sapele, and white oak, everything figured, just piling up. Perhaps an additional part of the issue is that I tend to think figure goes best in small projects, table tops are maybe the single exception but I don't need ten tables in my home.

So I've got to ask:

1. What are your favorite projects for figured wood?

2. Does figured wood burn well? JK ;-)

[Lee Schierer]

Figured wood is great for making boxes, jewelry boxes, desks, chairs, cabinets, dressers, etc. It's more a question of what can't be mage of figured wood.

[Rob Luter]

Happy Holidays everyone!

I was at the lumber yard picking up sheet goods and just had to grab some of the heavily quilted maple that had shown up recently. I got home and went to put it away and realized... I buy too much figured wood! I'm just a sucker for it. I wish I could walk by and not pick it up but there's something "rare and special" about it to me and I always convince myself that buying another board or two will be useful. After several years of "just one more piece" I've now got several walls, floor to ceiling, of maple, walnut, sapele, and white oak, everything figured, just piling up. Perhaps an additional part of the issue is that I tend to think figure goes best in small projects, table tops are maybe the single exception but I don't need ten tables in my home.

So I've got to ask:

1. What are your favorite projects for figured wood?

2. Does figured wood burn well? JK ;-)

Where is your lumberyard? All the yards around me have is crappy construction grade stuff. I do have one retail hardwoods source but anything with any figure is crazy expensive.

[Zachary Hoyt]

Musical instruments are a traditional place to use figured wood, and it works well for that.

[roger wiegand]

I'm with Zachary-- the world always needs more guitars!

I'm also a fan of contrasting, wildly figured panels in frame and panel doors.

Or, pretty much anything else.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

If any is quater sawn or close to it you may be able to break it down into back and side sets for acoustic instruments. Electric guitar builders seek out pieces that are strikingly beautiful.

[Stan Calow]

Sounds like you have a business opportunity. You can resell for a profit to those of us who love figured wood.

[Jim Becker]

Aside from leveraging that beautiful material in projects of its own, figured material an also be leveraged for special features in other projects, such as pulls, panels, inlays, etc., that "kick them up a few notches".

[Ron Citerone]

Contrasting drawer fronts. Drawer dividers and compartments for jewelry storage. Toys for kids. Toy banks. Accent pieces on charcuterie boards.
I would sort through your stash to see if you have enough of one or two species for a jewelry armoire Or other small furniture e.g. night stand.

[Richard Coers]

Don't ask me. I've been collecting figured hardwood for 50 years. In one stack I have about 3,500 bd ft. Plum pudding mahogany, quilted cherry up to 18" wide, knotty butternut, curly white oak that is so curly the medullary rays are wavy, curly ambrosia soft maple, curly walnut, and on and on and on. At the age of 71, I hope you guys come to my estate sale.

[Warren Lake]

when is it?

[Bryan Hall]

Don't ask me. I've been collecting figured hardwood for 50 years. In one stack I have about 3,500 bd ft. Plum pudding mahogany, quilted cherry up to 18" wide, knotty butternut, curly white oak that is so curly the medullary rays are wavy, curly ambrosia soft maple, curly walnut, and on and on and on. At the age of 71, I hope you guys come to my estate sale.

How many stacks do you have!? I was starting to feel gluttonous with the 250-300bf I've accumulated. Thanks for making me feel like I can head to the yard and buy some more, worry free haha.

Rob, I'm in Portland where we have an unbelievable wealth of lumberyards and home mill enthusiasts. None of the lumber I buy is ever labeled as "figured" but I'm at the yards every week and am not ashamed to dig to the back of the racks if I see a piece that catches my eye.

Thanks for the tips everyone, I think my brain is starting to spin on a few new ideas.

[Richard Coers]

How many stacks do you have!? I was starting to feel gluttonous with the 250-300bf I've accumulated. Thanks for making me feel like I can head to the yard and buy some more, worry free haha.


5' wide, 6' tall, and 10' long in one pile, then more stacked vertically. There is a stack in the laundry room, but I can't even see it. I have turning stock in my home attic, garage attic, and 3 stacks in my shop. Our son says if this house caught fire, they would see it from space.
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[Bryan Hall]

5' wide, 6' tall, and 10' long in one pile, then more stacked vertically. There is a stack in the laundry room, but I can't even see it. I have turning stock in my home attic, garage attic, and 3 stacks in my shop. Our son says if this house caught fire, they would see it from space.
512625512627512628

I'm not gonna lie Richard, I see a few spots you could slide a few more sticks into!

[Rob Luter]

......Rob, I'm in Portland where we have an unbelievable wealth of lumberyards and home mill enthusiasts. None of the lumber I buy is ever labeled as "figured" but I'm at the yards every week and am not ashamed to dig to the back of the racks if I see a piece that catches my eye......

You are truly blessed. While we have some figured wood around there (mostly Maple and Cherry), it's quickly segregated and sold at a super premium price.

Earlier in my career I had an Engineer working for me whose Father had a small sawmill in Downstate Illinois. He ran it to supplement family farming income. He had lived in the area all his life and had relationships with all the tree services and various city crews in the little farming towns. When his Dad died he went down to help his Mom with the Estate work and discovered that over the years his Dad had hoarded figured wood and stored it all stickered up in an old poultry barn (these are huge). His best guess at the time was he had 100K board feet of Curly, Quilted, and Birdseye maple, Black walnut, Curly Cherry, and many other species where his Dad would just pull the nice stuff off the saw and store it "for later". The amount of crotchwood and bookmatches in the barn was staggering. Last I heard he was using all this stuff for his retirement plan.

[Richard Coers]

I'm not gonna lie Richard, I see a few spots you could slide a few more sticks into!
I sell a van load every year at the Midwest Penturner's Gathering in Hoffman Estates, IL so inventory is down. LOL

[Mark Gibney]

What woodworking projects do you like to make?
Is this a hobby for you, or are you a professional woodworker? - I'm guessing you're a hobbyist.
I'm very interested to see what you decide. Whatever it is needs to be fairly simple, so you can make it fast and repeatable, and you need, I think, to decide if you're going to try to sell it (good luck) or give it away.
Let us know what you decide to do!

[Jim Becker]

What woodworking projects do you like to make?
Is this a hobby for you, or are you a professional woodworker? - I'm guessing you're a hobbyist.
I'm very interested to see what you decide. Whatever it is needs to be fairly simple, so you can make it fast and repeatable, and you need, I think, to decide if you're going to try to sell it (good luck) or give it away.
Let us know what you decide to do!

The OP is a pro woodworker.

[Bryan Hall]

The OP is a pro woodworker.

Flattered. Let's say pro cabinet maker/custom carpenter. For some reason I don't believe I've earned the title of pro woodworker yet.


What woodworking projects do you like to make?
Is this a hobby for you, or are you a professional woodworker? - I'm guessing you're a hobbyist.
I'm very interested to see what you decide. Whatever it is needs to be fairly simple, so you can make it fast and repeatable, and you need, I think, to decide if you're going to try to sell it (good luck) or give it away.
Let us know what you decide to do!

For the most part, everything I build that is figured is given away or sold for the cost of the materials to my friends at the moment. Occasionally I use it in my paid projects. I built a sliding barn door out of heavily quilted maple for a client that used up a good chunk of my stash once. Another client requested an entire kitchen in flame maple which cleared that out once as well. I made a small workbench top out of flame maple once and made my wife cry. It never made it into service and instead became my desk in the home. She was right.

I think I'm leaning towards the contrasting drawer front/frame idea that for whatever reason hasn't popped in my head recently:
1-2 Dressers
2 nightstands
Plane cabinet

More than anything, we could really use a full set of dining chairs. I would love to build lounge chairs with matching ottomans. However, it feels woefully misguided to teach myself to make chairs with the best wood I own.

I'll try to be better about posting pictures!

[Mark Gibney]

Sounds like you've plenty of inspiration. Photos of your work would be great to see.

[Ronald Blue]

Don't ask me. I've been collecting figured hardwood for 50 years. In one stack I have about 3,500 bd ft. Plum pudding mahogany, quilted cherry up to 18" wide, knotty butternut, curly white oak that is so curly the medullary rays are wavy, curly ambrosia soft maple, curly walnut, and on and on and on. At the age of 71, I hope you guys come to my estate sale.

You aren't having it anytime soon are you? At least hopefully not. Looks like a very nice stash though. Most everything I have is of the plain variety. Not that walnut or cherry isn't nice but it's not anything that will turn heads especially compared to the highly figured stuff.

[Joel Gelman]

My problem in some cases is going to the lumber yard (Ganahl or Austin Hardwood) and finding quartersawn or figured walnut, and not turning it down, and when I go to use it, I realize it is not as good as what I thought when buying it.... the sap on one side is a problem or quartersawn is not as beneficial was rift sawn and I should have had rift sawn.

In the future, I will buy figured when I see it, but I will be more picky.

[Jim Dwight]

My favorite thing to make currently of figured wood is stocks, or parts of stocks, for my air rifles. Figured walnut blanks for stocks often go for pretty good prices. I just use wood I happen to have. When an oak tree fell in my backyard from root rot I had the tree service leave a little of the butt which I then cut up into a few small slabs that are drying in my shop. I used some to make a stock for a little carbine that did not need big pieces - because I don't have any big pieces. Most recently I used a small block about 2x2.5 inches as the tip of a gunstock for a different rifle. That is a very traditional use of small pieces. This oak is so figured people do not recognize it as oak. I cannot run it through my planner without getting chipout.

It depends on the figure and you probably know this but figured wood is not always real stable. In a gun stock the greatest amount of figure goes into the butt where stability doesn't matter and the part holding the barrel and action is often straight grained. Of the projects you named I would only be a little concerned about chairs. Back legs need pretty straight grain but curly wood would probably work great. I only make a woodsmith plan chair but I've made 18 of them so far. 8 ladder back and 10 with vertical slats. I like it because it is all right angles.

There used to be a hardwood dealer locally that was no longer in business. He had a bard with tools in it but he stored the wood in buildings made of PVC tubing and plastic sheets. He bought rough sawn dry hardwood and then planned it before he sold it. I think he planned it at least partially so he could sort out the figured material and sell it for more.

[Zachary Hoyt]

That's interesting about your former hardwood dealer. I would venture to guess that he may have planed it not so much to find the curly grain himself as to be able to show it to customers. Once someone has handled enough rough lumber it is easy to see the curly grain before planing.

[Jim Dwight]

That could be it. Or he might have had so many customers asking for planned wood he just decided to make it his standard offering. It also gave him something to do other than sit around and wait for a customer to show up. I think he built things sometimes too. He was sometimes in the office and sometimes in the barn. His "guard dogs" alerted him when a prospective customer drove up. (The dogs were friendly but he didn't like you to pet them, he wanted them to be more mean)