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Curly Maple

Started by ahlkey, June 13, 2011, 03:23:24 PM

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ahlkey

Just picked up this weekend a Curly Maple tree that went down in a recent storm that was 26 inches at dbh. The larger 12 ft butt log I estimated weighed close to 2,500 lbs.  It will be interesting to see the final grain quality once it is cut on the Sawmill.  Anyone has any experience with sawing or milling Curly Maple as this is my first opportunity for Curly Maple lumber?






Jeff

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Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

red oaks lumber

i didn't think you could tell if its curly until you sawed it. milling is no differant than other maple, when it comes to planing thou you want sharp knives cause it wants to grain pull alot.
the experts think i do things wrong
over 18 million b.f. processed and 7341 happy customers i disagree

Jeff

Curly is pretty easy to tell in the log, its birds eye that is difficult.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

SPIKER

alright Jeff how about a video on how to tell curly maple? :D  and or Birdseye maple;)

mark
I'm looking for help all the shrinks have given up on me :o

ahlkey

I did cut a small section with the chainsaw and it was definitely Curly or Tiger Maple.  The owner claimed it can be found in only 1% of hard Maple trees and even then the quality can vary quite a bit.  I guess I will not know for sure how it looks until I saw the logs up next week.

chevytaHOE5674

First check for curl or eye is to bump the bark off and have a look see if there's anything showing at the surface.

If it shows then clip a cookie off the end of the log and chop it apart with an axe (axe blade running parallel with the grain) and see how deep the figure goes.

T.J.

i had an old timer (who builds fiddles) tell me if it feels rough under the bark it will have "figure" but if it's smooth it wont have any figure.

has anyone ever heard that before? is it true?

T.J.

chevytaHOE5674

I've seen plenty of logs that are "rough" under the bark that when chopped showed no figure (eye or curl). And when thrown through the saw mill don't come out with any figure.

I've also seen logs that show no birds eye or curl under the bark (so they weren't clipped and chopped as nobody thought there was figure) come out of the sawmill just loaded with eye or curl. Seen one #1 sawlog go come out of the mill that we could have easily sold for 10+ a board foot.  



Quote from: ahlkey on June 13, 2011, 08:51:14 PM
The owner claimed it can be found in only 1% of hard Maple trees and even then the quality can vary quite a bit.

Curly hard maple is quite common around here. There is relatively no market for it unless it also has birds eye. Most is just ran through the sawmill with the rest of the sawlogs.

Good soft maple Curl and hard maple birds eye are where the money is. Veneer quality SM curl logs are worth big bucks as Gibson Guitar uses that for their guitar faces. 

T.J.

chevytaHOE5674,

thanks for the information.i appreciate it.i had a few Maples get blown over during the April 27 tornados - i guess i'll just have to cut them up and see if anything is in there.

thanks again,
T.J.

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