Imagine two slabs of curly maple

[lowell holmes]

It's no a gloat because I paid dearly for them. I am starting a rocking chair for one of my daughters and her baby that is on the way. I wanted to make the chair out of curly maple. In my search, I came across 2 slabs that are over 13" wide, 2 1/4" thick and over 8' long. I may be able to build the whole chair out of one of the slabs. I think both slabs are from the same tree. They are rift cut and the moisture content runs 11 to 13 percent. I would prefer 8 to 9 percent. The importance of the thickness is that I can plane a 48" length to be straight and leave a full 1 7/8" thickness. I've never worked with figured maple before. My question is about cutting the wood to maximize the figure. Are there considerations I need to be aware of? I intend to use an aniline dye to pop the figure out. I will follow with 6 to 7 coats of an oil finish that has resins in the formula.

[Jamie Buxton]

If it is really really curly, you may have tearout when you plane it. Tread lightly until you get it figured out.

[lowell holmes]

I am sensitive to that. I was checking the surface on one end with a hand plane and found that if I planed across the grain, it did better. Obviously I will not be able to plane acroos the grain with my power planer. I normally spray a water mist on maple as it enters the planer with some success. There are some places on these boards that are highly figured and will have to deal with it.
I will take some of the scrap pieces that I can't use abd run them through the planer to see how the wood works. :-)

[Ron Blaise]

Sells Curly Maple cheap because the cabinet makers won't buy it (they want all grain to be uniform). So If my friend and I want we can go pick through the pile for "rejects" :D

[lowell holmes]

Now that is a gloat!

[Jim Becker]

Lowell, those chairs are going to be the bee's knees once you're finished. I personally like starting out with thicker material, myself, as it presents so many possibilities, even for cabinetry. (grain and color matching legs and end panels, for example)

If you find that the material is being ornery while jointing and planing, you'll want to stop shy of the dimensions and work it down with hand tools and (oy!) sanding. Until you start playing with it, however, you'll not know exactly how it's going to react to machining. The curly maple I worked with for a candle stand not long ago was just fine as long as I used a slight shearing angle when jointing and planing. (My J/P combo is 14" wide and allows for that pretty easily)

[Dick Strauss]

Lowell,
I had lots of issues with my curly/quilted maple lumber. My buddy's Delta 15" planer and DJ20 jointer wouldn't cut the lumber cleanly even with new knives. In general I noticed the tighter the figure, the more issue to flatten it without tearout. The water mist didn't work one bit.

I ended up using a Woodmaster planer/moulder because I could slow it way down to get a clean surface. It has a separate DC motor for feeding that has a speed adjustment range of 1-100. I ran the lumber at about 25-30% or maximum speed with excellent results.

[lowell holmes]

I expect issues to develop as I proceed and I value your feedback.
My chair will be a m&t chair with a carved wooden seat. The design requires a lot of hand work. I will work the cut list on a band saw and mill it close to thickness with a planer. I expect that I need to sharpen the blades in my jointer .

I was excited to find the wood, but when I look at the two planks I feel a bit intimidated. It's going to be fun and I look forward to starting.

[Bill Wyko]

You may consider taking it to your local cabinet shop and having them run them through the drum sander if you don't have one. I don't even chance it with highly figured woods.IMHO

[Al Weber]

I use curly maple a lot and have little trouble working it if I always wet the surface first and use sharp equipment. Forget low angle planes also. When you do run into a nasty piece plan on using scrapers and sand paper. I have the Delta two speed portable planer (I don't know the model number) and use the "finishing" speed as that tends to minimize tear out also. I use a very slow feed rate on the joiner also. I really keep the wood wet when I work it. I use a sponge and liberally apply enough to totally wet the surface. I think you won't have too much difficulty with it.

[lowell holmes]

Here is a photo of the figure on the wood. You can see why I'm excited.71094