spalted maple?

[markus shaffer]

I have a possible cabinet job coming up where the customer wants the panels of the doors to be maple. Looking around my shop, he spots a piece of spalted maple lying on the bench that's destined to be a guitar. Now he's really excited about the idea of spalted maple for the panels in his cabinets. Knowing that there's not a lot of spalted maple about and that it will be difficult finding enough to match for a kitchen full of cabinets, I'm wondering if anyone has seen it in veneer sheets. If so, any ideas where it is available would be appreciated. I don't often work with veneer, so any other suggestions besides maple would also be appreciated. If anyone has suggestions where I could get a decent amount of it in solid boards, that would also be helpful. Thanks for the input.

-Markus

[Steve Clardy]

Hmmm. Don't know Markus. There ought to be a mother load of spalted maple somewhere in this world, but finding it in quanities might be the problem, especially veneer stock. Have never seen it. Do a goggle search on spalted maple suppliers or something similar to that.
Steve

[Cam.Hedrick]

you can make your own! I dropped a maple tree a few years ago and left the logs in a bog for about 8 months before I took them to the mill. it was beautiful wood after it was sawn, and then I took it to be dried in a kiln. It now our kitchens cabinets and my wife loves it.
Give it a try!

[Jim Becker]

Markus, I just did a Google search on "Spalted Maple" and came up with a number of potential sources...after checking with sites that I already know and coming up empty. Do the search and check out what you can find. (I'm not aware of any bogs in NYC, but you might be able to spalt your own if you pile leaves and dirt on your roof and "tuck a log or two in" for a bit... :D )

[Noah Alkinburgh]

Markus,

I was thinking along the lines of make your own too, but I was thinking that you could make your own veneer. Then you could get some beautiful book matching effects and such.

Don't know if you have the capacity for that, but that would be something. Of course, no matter what customer needs to see that this is a "custom" custom job and therefore mucho $$$$$ You are either gonna be forking it over to find the wood or adding up the hours.

Make sure if it happens you keep us up to date on the progress.

Of course since Manhattan is essentially just buildings on a bog.....:D

Noah

[Tom Sontag]

You won't be finding much spalted veneer since the rotting process makes thin pieces impractical. But Woodfinder or similar should be able to locate some suppliers of solid. Sounds beautiful.

[Doug Littlejohn]

I'm with the others to make your own. Spalting by definition makes the wood very weak and most commerical techniques for cutting veneer would probably self destruct!!

If you can resaw out to about 12", you should be okay. Just buy the wood, then resaw into 1/8 panels. With careful handling, you should be able to do this. You'll get bookmatching (as stated earlier here) as well and the customer will be even more impressed.

That's all I know, YMMV. Let us know how it goes.

[markus shaffer]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. While I'd love to be able to make my own, it's definately not practical for me. I've got no bogs nearby despite what some might think of New York City. If I had a few maple logs, I could go drop them in the nature preserve near JFK airport, but I think that would arouse the suspicions of Tom Ridge. I'd rather not end up a permanat resident of Camp X-Ray. This job will start within the next month so I think the bog idea would take too long anyway. After searching the web, I've found some veneer suppliers that have a good supply of wormy ambrosia maple. I'm going to show that to the client and go from there. Thanks again for all the input.

-Markus

[Noah Alkinburgh]

Markus,

Good luck with the ambrosia! I have been smitten by a stash my local supplier has of it. I just can't decide what I want to make from it. It has to be one of the most unique looking woods I have ever seen in my life. I hope your client goes with it, cause I want to see pictures :)

Noah

[Ed Breen]

Marcus,

I bought 100 bd ft of spalted maple from walllumber.com about a year ago. He usually carries it. give it a try. Have used most of it a corner cabinet.
good luck
Ed:)

[Keith Christopher]

I used spalted maple as a veneer but I sliced it in 1/4" veneers, the soft spots I hardened with thin CA glue (thanks David Marks :) )

[Greg Tatum]

Hi Markus....I don't know how much shipping costs affect your budget on this project but here is a local(to me) sawyer with some spalted and quilted maple in the kiln at this time. His name is Chris. If you would like, I can go over there and give him your email addy and a heads-up as to your needs. It shouldn't be a problem to get pics of some of his offerings since he manages his own website. Hope this helps. http://nwwood.com/
Regards,
Greg