Wormy and Curly Maple

[Lloyd Robins]

I am making an entertainment center for the living room. I need some maple trim. I found a place advertising curly and wormy maple for $2.50 a board foot, which sounds good. When I contacted them they said that this is an ambrosia maple. I hate being stupid but is this a "soft" or "hard" maple? If it is "hard" I will order enough for more projects. If is it a "soft" maple I will either keep looking or order just enough to get me through this project (with of course extra for my goof-ups.) Thanks for your help.

[Jim Becker]

Lloyd, ambrosia maple is a soft maple. But you might not like it for your particular needs due to the gray streaking around the worm holes. Below is a picture of an ambrosia maple platter so you can see what I mean. For your trim, you'll probably be happier with either some form of "regular" figured maple or even straight-grained material if you can't get something that has the figure consistent through the pieces. (IMHO, of course)

[Todd Burch]

I would exactly ditto what Jim said. Curly soft or hard would be fine. For a piece as small as trim, stay away from ambrosia.

That is unless, you are going for the heavy distressed / country-made look.

Don't forget about Mike Mastin @ Curly Woods. And, here's the deal with Mike. I have never bought from Mike. However, I have TRIED to buy from him twice. Both times, I called up with my requirements, and both times he shot straight with me that he did not have what I needed on hand, either in quantity or quality. What else could a guy ask for in regards to honesty & integrity?

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

Don't forget about Mike Mastin @ Curly Woods. And, here's the deal with Mike. I have never bought from Mike. However, I have TRIED to buy from him twice. Both times, I called up with my requirements, and both times he shot straight with me that he did not have what I needed on hand, either in quantity or quality. What else could a guy ask for in regards to honesty & integrity?

I'll second the comment about Mike. I wanted to buy some curly cherry and told him what I needed in hopes that he would carry it to Steve Jenkin's picnic a couple months ago. When he go there he said he just didn't feel it was 'good' enough, so he didn't bring it. He knows I'm rather anal about things from previous sales, so although I was disappointed, I was also very impressed. Turns out I talked him into selling it to me anyway, and it worked out just fine for the Mission rocker I wanted it for.

Now, I'll disagree with the others about using the Ambrosia maple. I think it would look incredible.

KC

[Lloyd Robins]

Thanks for the replies. I think that for this project I will go with just curly maple, but I may try the ambrosia for something else. Thanks again and Merry Christmas!

[Duane Dennis]

...Don't forget about Mike Mastin @ Curly Woods. And, here's the deal with Mike. I have never bought from Mike. However, I have TRIED to buy from him twice. Both times, I called up with my requirements, and both times he shot straight with me that he did not have what I needed on hand, either in quantity or quality. What else could a guy ask for in regards to honesty & integrity?


FWIW, I've made a couple of purchases from Curlywoods.com and been very pleased both times. Fortunately, they are just a 20 minute drive from me, so I can hand pick the pieces I want. I recently completed a couple of mantle clocks using curly soft maple from their "good figure" pile.

Here's a couple of pics if they help:

http://www.duaneswoodworking.homestead.com/bothclocksfigure.jpg

http://www.duaneswoodworking.homestead.com/clocksonhearth.jpg

[Todd Burch]

Awesome Duane! I would classify that as "good" curl - NOT! It's AWESOME curl!!