Curly maple cradle

[Craig Zettle]

I just finished a cradle for a customer, and after I suggested we go with curly maple, I vastly underestimated the pittfals of cutting curves in curly. Wasted a little wood finding out the irregular grain pattern would lead to almost impossible routing of the curves.

40019

40020

40021

The floating panels are quartersawn maple, as I wanted a little variation in the color flow.

[Corey Hallagan]

Very nice work Craig! I looks beautiful and I am sure the customer will be more than pleased!

Corey

[Frank Guerin]

Since I'm cheap, poor I have never really worked with much highly grained wood so I have to ask. Did you try sneaking up on it.

[Craig Zettle]

To be honest, I tried everything I could think of. After I made the patterns out of poplar, I would shave a little off in one direction, then stick the pattern on the other side and try a different direction. A big problem arose when I had to glue 3 pieces of 3/4 together to get the nessesary thickness for the legs and feet. The grain pattern went haywire there. Sanding the profiles with an oscillating sander worked well. I have worked with curly before, but mostly straight cuts. Quite a learning experience, as all my endevors are.