If the hand tools won't cut it, then they are not sharp. Brush up on your sharpening skills and you'll find maple much nicer to work with.Originally Posted by James Jayko
Contributor
If the hand tools won't cut it, then they are not sharp. Brush up on your sharpening skills and you'll find maple much nicer to work with.
Contributor
Pretty much every piece I made is done with at least some figured maple. It's about my favorite wood. I'm glad I started using it before I found out that it was impossible to work with ;-) This cabinet is the first, and so far only, piece I've made using hand planes only for finishing, no sandpaper or scrapers. An exercise to see if I could do it, I guess. The flower container on top was made when my DW was doing a flower arrangement for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for "Art in Bloom" interpreting a Japanese scroll. I figured it was the only thing I would ever do that would be shown at the MFA so it deserved some special treatment.
IMG_7849.jpg
Contributor
I made this cd cabinet for a woodworking competition some years ago. It wasn’t highly figured but the wood was hard, heavy and tight. Very challenging to plane. I chose the board for its ultra white color. I like maple but it’s kinda expensive and figured boards are culled form lifts so the lumber yard can charge more.
Aj
Contributor
simple work on the stroke sander. Derek you said once that hand planing is better, its not, its like all my friends who say their Macs are better. Its different and surfaces are related to what the job is. Done enough work in birdseye and its simple with machines.
Oh and nice work Andrew
Contributor
Best curly maple I ever got came from a mill around the PA/NY border decades ago. It was way up a back road, I've never managed to find it again. I asked about figured maple and they said "oh yeah, over in the corner. We pull it out because the cabinet guys hate it". It was half the price of the "good lumber", incredible figure, sequential boards up to about 20" wide. The effect of a hundred fifty BF piled up in and on my '68 Plymouth Valiant was part of what let to its early demise, though the crushed in roof gave it a certain air.
The table top in the picture I posted came from one of those boards-- I'm still hoarding a couple for special occasions.
Contributor
PA/NY seems to be good hunting ground for figure. I am fortunate to live near Old Standard Wood in Fulton MO. The proprietor of that mill spends his winters hunting logs in the Adirondacks. He has a knack for finding figure. He says he can tell from the bark what the figure will be like.
I tried to split some sugar maple last summer. I have added splitting sugar maple to my list of things to stop trying.
Here is the wisdom and work of William R. Cumpiano and Jonathan D. Natelson regarding difficult Maple. And a detail of a notched plane iron.
IMG_1927.jpg IMG_1925.jpg IMG_1928.jpg
Last edited by Maurice Mcmurry; 03-16-2024 at 9:00 AM.
Best Regards, Maurice
Contributor
Thats how I remember it.
Figured wood wasn’t separated from the lifts to charge more. It’s actually fine with me I’ve had my share. I do occasionally look for quilted maple boards. Sometimes I see it just on the end of a board I wonder how many have passed on it before i had eyes on it.
Good Luck Roger
Aj
Contributor
Derek,
Love your cabinet. How did you attach the legs?
Jeff
Contributor
Thanks Jeff. The legs were glued and screwed (from the inside) ...
Details here: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furnitu...leTheLegs.html
Regards from Perth
Derek
Contributor
I think the OP was referring to planing the protruding dovetails, which would be end grain. For that, try wetting the end grain with a bit of alcohol, or a 50/50 mix of alcohol and water, this will soften the fibers slightly and can make end grain easier to plane. Set the plane to cut a very fine shaving. That being said, there is no substitute for SHARP.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
