I recently sent a message to a member commenting on his selection of crotch wood for tombstone door panels. They were beautiful. In my response I also mentioned some difficulty and problems I experience with figured maple stock I purchase locally from a reputable and well know lumberyard and mill. This is rough sawn 4/4, 8/4 so on stock.
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In milling and preparing stock for my furniture I find that pieces of figured maple have patches or spots of black staining, at times they are very delineated almost looking like it was applied with human hands and in others cases less so. It is difficult to see this staining in un milled rough stock but I see it only after I spend hours milling and rough dimensioning the stock. It is very disheartening as figured maple is very expensive and the stains invariably are apparent in the stock right at the most conspicuous part of the furniture where one really wants the best looking .
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In addition there is another blemish I occasionally see in figured maple. Again I do not see it in rough stock, nor do I see it after milling, cutting ,and assembly. Rather at the time of staining. It is these colored fleck or specs , It almost looks like a painter splashed some stain on the wood. They are broadcast over a piece in various patterns. Again I cannto really see these until well after assembly.
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What is causing these blemishes in this wood that I purchase and which is so expensive.
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Are there’re any tell tail signs I can see in this wood at the time of selection as roguh cut stock?
Replies
Dubie,
I've the same in my fiddleback maple and I like them.. I suppose it's a matter of personal preferance but you might try getting the wood slightly wet to "see" such things. Carry a damp sponge with you when you go to select the wood..
Here are pictures from some curly maple I purchased with two types of blemishes. The darker narrow blemish I certainly can live with. However the black blotches are the problematic blemishes as you can see and they are occurring sporaidcally and without any real pattern in the stock. As i mentioend earlier in this thread, I cannot see these black blemishes in the rough stock I select at the yard. It alomost looks like they ar eof himan origin due to the sahpoe of them. what are these blakc spots. I thought these were in fact mineral stains and the narrow darker markings due to a botanical artifact or something.
I'd guess the mineral stain is just that, or a water stain at least. The acceptable stain looks like spalting to me.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
I believe the "acceptable stain" is from an ambrosia beetle - hence the single hole at the center.
Though to be more precise, it is spalt too because the beetle cultivates fungus for it's own purposes.
Edited 2/15/2008 11:59 am ET by Samson
Also, I think I spelled it wrong, it should have been splat, like what happened to the beetle when he pressed two boards together maybe.........
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
it is staining from the fungis as I stated before ,I have harvested thousands & thousands of board feet. as well my wife is a botanist !
The one you labeled "mineral stain" looks to be some kind of mold or mildew. That would likely have come from insufficient air circulation while drying. I'm surprised that you couldn't see it in the rough-sawn stock, though.
The other one is definitely from an ambrosia beetle.
-Steve
Are you talking about marks like this?
View Image
They're called mineral stains, and they're pretty common in maple. They vary a lot from piece to piece. Curly maple seems to have more of them on average, but they can be in any given piece. I don't think there's much you can do but accept that they're a fact of life when dealing with maple. Personally, I think they give the wood a little more character.
-Steve
Steve,
How do you get a picture to show up in the body of the message? Mine just appear as attachments (see attachment!)Chris @ flairwoodworks
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
If I told you, I'd have to kill you...for attaching such a !@#$% big photo.
It's a multi-step process:
Attach the file as normal.
Click the Preview button.
With the message preview displayed, click the attached file icon to display the attachment.
Right-click on the image and select Copy from the popup menu.
Go back in your browser to the preview; click the Revise button to return to the message editor.
Place the cursor in the body of the message where you want the image to appear. Right-click and select Paste to paste the image into the message at that location.
-Steve
Steve,
I value my life too much. I'm sticking with attachments. Good to know, though.Chris @ flairwoodworks
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
This is getting funny, Chris! ;-) C'mon now, even your attachment will get more views (no, not that attachment) if you downsize the files a bit. You must have gotten software with your camera that lets you edit the photos, no? Image-->resize--> get it down to about 400 pixels wide, almost any photo, and you're in business. File-->Save as-->"photoname_z" I put a z at the end of photos that are web-sized. During that Save as, just check to be sure you're saving it as a .jpg and at medium compression or so.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Don't you enjoy the opportunity to go brew a fresh pot of coffee before scrutinizing my work? I can and in the future will downsize my pictures. That was just a quick and dirty example of the only way I knew how to post a picture. What do you think of it, by the way? And how's the size? It's 3" x 2-1/4".Chris @ flairwoodworks
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Chris,
Just curious but what is your screen resolution set to?
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Bob,
It's 1024 x 768 pixels. Does that sound right?Chris @ flairwoodworks
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Chris,
Sounds good to me. I jack mine up when I'm doing photo mods and AutoCAD sometimes. When you get to 61 you'll understand why. :-)
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 2/16/2008 10:03 pm ET by KiddervilleAcres
Looks pretty good, Chris (actually the picture itself is great! love the handle). Windows Explorer shows the file size at 70 kb, which is decent. Here, let's see how it fits when injected into a post:
View Imageforestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Chris, if you choose to imbed pictures in your messages, please, please, please, please make them less than 75kb files, less than 50kb is better. When you imbed a picture, the viewer has no choice whether to wait for it to download, as they do with an attachment. It slows the whole thread down. If you need help with reducing the file size, several of us are more than willing to outline the steps. Keep in mind, too, that by posting a 2MB attachment, you are immediately reducing the number of views it will get. No big deal if you're just showing off a screwdriver, but might be a big deal if you're looking for help with something obscure.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 2/13/2008 11:06 am by forestgirl
Edited 2/14/2008 12:42 am by forestgirl
forestgirl,
75kb files, less than 50mb is better
Oooopppssss?
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
The string between the tin cans on her internet connection must have a little slack in it. You must not enjoy the benefits of broadband until she catches up.
We just tightened the string on ours and we now get a zippy 28K!
Actually there's a lot more to it than that. We're not showing our stuff to the Smithsonian here. Posting mega sized pics is more annoying than anything else and they suck up a disk pretty quickly and for what purpose? Cause you gotta high speed connection so what the hay.
Lest not forget that the wire you're using is being used by lots of other folks too. If everyone abuses it eventually you end up with a blivit. You know what that is donch? 10 lbs of sh)t in a 5 lb bag!
I'm not suggesting 1" x 2" pics by any means, but what useful purpose do magabyte plus pics serve?
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 2/13/2008 1:15 pm ET by KiddervilleAcres
I have broadband -- DSL -- but not everyone does (there's another thread going on that has lots of discussion about this). Pics can be resized and compressed very easily, and it doesn't take any more time to get 'em down to 50kb or so that it does to get down to 500kb or more. There's plenty of help here too.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 2/14/2008 12:43 am by forestgirl
Good point. I will stick with attachments.Chris @ flairwoodworks
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Dubie
first off crotch wood &figured maple are two completelly different things, crotch generally is where the trunk branchs off like an armpit. figured maple is an deformitty in the tree and usually why the tree is cut, actually it is a fungus wich causes the grain to grow back in to itself. no you can not find it before hand ,basically when you mill the lumber it oxidizes wich brings out the blotching your seeing and I beleive that is one reason many people use a cherry dye in there finishing? However I have had great sucsess by wetting thestock after milling with laqeur thinner and then scaping with a card scraper. also the stains tend to deminish once the finish has cured,& after all it is wood something that has lived & breathed & been scared& so on ,should,nt that be part of its beuty. best of luck/I'm sure you will love it when your down.
Dan
Edited 2/13/2008 11:09 am ET by woodguydan
Edited 2/13/2008 11:10 am ET by woodguydan
Edited 2/13/2008 11:11 am ET by woodguydan
Did you buy Hard or Soft Maple?
Soft Maple is prone to all manner of stains - particularly mineral stains. Hard Maple tends to run clear(er).
Whenever possible, I cut my stocks to avoid staining. A black streak does not make wood beautiful...
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