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View Full Version : Big-Leaf Maple [Acer macrophyllum]


Dan Dill
02-19-2007, 11:59 PM
How is this maple compared to the other maples out there such as sugar, silver and red? This is of course the 'Pacific" maple and we have a few growing out here that produce amazing wood sometimes, but I mostly see the eastern maples being used.
Jamie Buxton
02-20-2007, 12:06 AM
Bigleaf is considered a soft maple, and as such is a little easier to dent than the hard maples. The color of bigleaf maple is often a little copper-colored compared to the classic eastern maple. (I really like that.) And sometimes bigleaf is kinda stringy. That is, when you plane it, the fibers are willing to tear away from the body of the wood.

A nice piece of quilted bigleaf will just knock your socks off.
Dan Dill
02-20-2007, 12:16 AM
Bigleaf is considered a soft maple, and as such is a little easier to dent than the hard maples. The color of bigleaf maple is often a little copper-colored compared to the classic eastern maple. (I really like that.) And sometimes bigleaf is kinda stringy. That is, when you plane it, the fibers are willing to tear away from the body of the wood.

A nice piece of quilted bigleaf will just knock your socks off.

I have two gunstock blanks that are only 2 inches thick of quilted that is amazing stuff. I also milled blocks from a perfect and solid log that has been sitting on a log landing for 7 years. It has curl, burl, and spalt, plus a few blues and greys in the wood. It is really starting to grow on me, but I wasn't sure about how the woodworkers thought of it?
Mike Parzych
02-20-2007, 9:19 AM
I'm planning on getting some quilted maple when the right project/idea comes along. Maybe you can answer this - I see lots on the internet and the color seems to vary from whitish to brownish. Is that variation real..are the colors being accurately presented. Also heard it worse than birdseye/curly maple to plane without lots of tearout.

"Soft" maple is a catch-all term that cover different maple varieties, so qualitiy varies. I've seen some nice and some not so nice stock.
John Michaels
02-20-2007, 12:47 PM
Maybe you can answer this - I see lots on the internet and the color seems to vary from whitish to brownish. Is that variation real..are the colors being accurately presented. Also heard it worse than birdseye/curly maple to plane without lots of tearout.

I have about six boards of curly western maple and some are almost white and others have a pinkish/brown tint to them. There is quite a bit of natural variation. As far as planing, I've had small amount of tearout, less than hard maple, and it's not too hard to sand out.

Here's a photo of the color difference in two of the boards.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-11/1108263/CurlyMaple.JPG
Dan Dill
02-20-2007, 6:04 PM
This is what the gunstocks look like and some of my recent finds. I love this wood, but wonder how it will hold up as a top to a cigar humidor?

http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p180/SCOPAC495/SCOPAC_Maple/th_blmaplegnstckclose.jpg (http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p180/SCOPAC495/SCOPAC_Maple/blmaplegnstckclose.jpg)
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p180/SCOPAC495/SCOPAC_Maple/th_blmaplegnstck.jpg (http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p180/SCOPAC495/SCOPAC_Maple/blmaplegnstck.jpg)
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p180/SCOPAC495/SCOPAC_Maple/th_P2180001.jpg (http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p180/SCOPAC495/SCOPAC_Maple/P2180001.jpg)
Jim Becker
02-20-2007, 11:33 PM
The top for a humidor? Dan, I don't think you'll have any problem with this material for any kind of use like that. "Soft" is relative when it comes to maples..."soft" maple is still pretty hard stuff, so unless you plan on dancing on top of the box with tap shoes, I think you'll be fine!