looking for wood, Pacific coast maple ?
Hello,
I’m on the verge of buying a new stash of wood and have some doubts of what to buy.
At the moment i’m quite interested in alder, due to the subdued grain pattern and the softness which i will probably make it a ‘pleasure’ using planes and chisels. I use japanese tools a lot, and they were intended for softwood. There are some hardwood japanese saws, but that’s another story and i don’t know about the nomi’s and kanna’s.
Another option is pacific coast maple, which i can get quite cheap. It don’t like hard maple much. Well i actually like the colour, grain pattern and fine texture but what i really don’t like is that it’s fairly hard on the tools. I also don’t like the ‘cold’ feel it has coz it’s so hard.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of info about, so i thought i’d ask around the board if any folks have experience with the pacific coast maple variety (big leaf maple i think). The wholesaler tells me it’s harder than alder but softer than rock maple. But that’s a little thin on info for me. I’d also like to know if there’s a lot of pitch flecks and stripes in the wood, which would put me off.
I’ve never worked with cherry before, but i guess the PCM is in that range of hardness, but this is only a big guess.
What i need it for : i’m into tables of all sorts at the moment, sofa, side, kitchen, dinning. Also looking to build some bookcases and small hall cabinets, maybe some floor lamps as well. No closing the wood with varnish, well maybe wiping-varnish, but mainly oils, wax, shellac.
Replies
Your supplier was pretty close. As to character -- it's got a lot. Colors, streaks, erratic grain, sometimes straight and clear but most is more like hickory. It planes well -- if your good.
"Softer than hard maple" -- that's a lot of woods :)
Their is little comparison to alder, a much softer wood but a fast grower so don't count on uniformity of rings structure from one lot to the next. The big good older tight ring stuff usually goes to the cabinet mills. You can find unique alder as in cherry but you have to search. On the coast, lumber people consider it a trash tree, good for firewood and smoking salmon. I love it. Love Big leaf maple too.
BB
What i don't like in with cherry is the 'to much' figure, it can be to overpowering. Is alder lighter, in color, than cherry ? How much pitch flecks, streaks, percentage wise, is there on average ?I've read about 80%, can they be spotted on the rough boards ?The alder is about 30% more expensive than the PCM over here (Belgium).
Your profile doesn't have any "location" info in it. Are you here in the Pacific Northwest? If so, you should be able to buy a board and play with it a bit. I've used BL maple some and have a few boards in the shop. They are pretty plain, no pitch flecks (I don't think that's a problem with BLM). The advantage I can think of for maple over alder is that it wouldn't have that vaguely "fuzzy" surface that alder can have when you're sanding it down. A consequence of being harder I'd guess.
There should be information out there on the relative hardness of cherry and BLM. All three woods are prone to blotching, so that's a factor in the finishing schedule. The price differential between BLM and cherry may be significant.
I have the impression he is in Belgium, as in WAY over the pond . . . .
Edited 10/8/2009 11:49 am by stpatrick
Ah, thank you, I scanned through and saw the post where he mentions his location. So much easier if the info is in our profiles.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I can't seem to be able to include my location in my profile, don't have a membership, maybe that's why.
You can definitely put info in your profile, whether or not you're part of the "paid membership" group. But sometimes it's hard to find the right place to do it (there's more than one Profile, an issue I've raised with SysOp in the past).
First of all, make sure any pop-up blocker you have is turned off, or set to allow pop-ups from forums.taunton.com
OK, now.......Look up above, just under the blue bar, and click on the orange MY FORUMS. When that window opens up, look mid-way down the left side of the page, under Click to view or change: and click on My Profile.
On the second line, you'll see Change Profile. Click on that, and you're good to go.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Thx for the help, quite confusing
c,
If you were going to make thick slab table tops and slab type furniture the Western or Pacific Maple is beautiful . What I have used and seen of 4/4 stock is not impressive , not very flat and a lot of grain switch which relates to blotch .
You would be better off with Eastern Soft Maple .
Every log is different but in general you could do better , look at Beech it is being used in place of Alder and can be stained to all colors .Definitely depends on how the wood is dried , but if you buy KD you should be fine .
Western Black Oak is soft and cuts like butter and has a lot of grain flecks but no veneer has been available to match .
Alder is not hard and fuzzes out now and then sands easily but dents easy also the grain tends to switch and does not machine as well as Maple or Cherry imo .Rustic Alder is the huge rage in the NW with knots and all .
good luck dusty
I use a LOT of Broadleaf Maple, because it's a trash tree here.
It's my favorite wood, hands down. (Mainly because I can get so much of it simply by showing up...)
If I had to pick, I would say it compares to beechwood.
Good luck!
I now have my doubts about red alder, due to the blotchiness. Like the color and subtle grain though.
I was just reading up on willow, salix nigra, which seems to be in the same league as alder when hardness, or should i say softness, is concerned. I'm intrigued. Not a popular wood species around here it seems, why would that be ? It seems a tiny bit harder than yellow poplar, going on the specs, http://anderson-tully.com/species/willow.htm
I was hoping the the PCM was a soft maple veriety, but it seems to be a fairly tough timber, if it's compared to beech. The wholesaler sells soft maple too, but from what i can find on the web there seems to be a fair amount of pitch flecks in that species.
charlemagne,In terms of workability with hand tools, the most desired wood for centuries has been Walnut. When the English could no longer get Walnut from Europe they switched to Mahogany...which is a close second. One project in Walnut and I think you'll see why they felt that way.
Blotchy woods are a challenge, but once you get the finishing schedule down (there's lots of help in the literature), Alder can be fun to use because it can mimic other woods quite well. Unlike maple, which doesn't do well when finished dark.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
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