This is being sold locally under one name or the other for a reasonable price under $2.00 a bft. Is this a true maple and if it is why is it so reasonable in price?
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That's likely Big Leaf Maple (aka Western Maple, and a half dozen other names). It's plentiful in Oregon and Washington and is a true Maple. I imagine that's why it's so cheap. As far as I know it has always been pretty cheap.
It's browner and somewhat softer than the eastern hard Maples. But, there are softer Maples that are commercially available in North America. I refinished a pair of Maple stools that were produced in Quebec and they were VERY soft Maple.
Interestingly enough... the Big Leaf Maple is the only other Maple besides the Sugar Maple that one can realistically make Maple Syrup from. When I was a kid in southern Oregon we had a neighbor who made syrup from his Big Leaf Maples. It was excellent syrup!
Regards,
Kevin
PD, I think Kevin is right. If this is a native species out there, it's probably bigleaf (Acer macrophyllum.) Your other local maples (vine maple and Rocky Mountain maple) tend to be more shrub-like and aren't important timber sources. There are a lot of exotic maples, both Asian and European that have become well established and you also have boxelder, but these are all pretty much "soft" maples.
While bigleaf is also much softer (about 20%) than our Eastern hard maple (sugar maple; Acer saccharum), it's still a very nice cabinet wood...It's available in large dimensions and it often produces some very attractive special figures, both curly and quilted. Sounds like you've made a good buy.
I'm jealous. As an incurable cheapskate and scrounge, I search the Portland/Salem area for the best cost/value on soft/hardwood and you've beat me by almost half.
My hardwood supplier even told me that red alder is bought from the east coast even though the weyerhauser mill is in Longview---and has the market cornered.
Congratulations!
Tom, you Bigfooters out there don't have all that much in the way of hardwoods that would make us out here east of the Mississippi particularly jealous...But I've got to admit, bigleaf maple and alder are nice woods.
The one wood you have out there that really makes me envious is your yellow cedar (Alaska-cedar.) I've been using it for dulcimer soundboards and what a joy it is to work with. We don't have anything like it...and, being a fellow cheapskate, paying the freight to have it shipped in is enough to ruin your day.
Approximately 8% of our nations hardwood resources are in California, Orygun and Washington. The primary problem with these woods is attitude -- a smug superiority of the Easterns that their woods are somehow better and the demeaning opinions of the HUGE PNW softwood industry are the causes. It's too bad because the Hardwoods of the PNW are useable, distinctive and very beautiful.
Had this country been settled west to east instead of the way it was, it is my belief that Bigleaf maple would be the premier American cabinet wood (as opposed to cherry). The specific gravity of Bigleaf maple is about 1% less than cherry; its dimensional stability coefficients are virtually identical, but the figure that is present (fiddleback and quilt as well as the burls it produces) makes it a very special wood.
Sasquash
Stanley, you must be using that Liberal calculator of yours again. Bigleaf maple is a little over 6% lighter in weight than cherry. Cherry's average specific gravity (green volume-ovendry weight) is 0.47, while bigleaf's is 0.44.
...But yes, you do have some nice hardwoods out there...all six or seven of them. ;O)
Edited 6/6/2003 1:09:27 PM ET by Jon Arno
Hey Jon... this might be something you'd enjoy:
http://www.cof.orst.edu/cof/pub/home/rc/RC%208.pdf
I printed off a hardcopy a couple weeks ago. It's actually very interesting IMO.
Regards,
Kevin
Gee the guy who is the lead author on this publication has a name I've heard before -- I wonder who he could be??????
According to my source "Hardwoods of the Pacific Northwest" (mentioned by someone else in this thread as a good information source), in Table 3, it gives the specific gravity (12%) for Bigleaf maple @ 0.48 and for Cherry @0.50.
It must have been a typo 'cuz I do know and regularly cite a 4% difference in sp. gr. when I compare them. Sorry.
Edited 6/6/2003 8:00:17 PM ET by NIEMIEC1
Here in the great central valley, the coast ranges, and the sierra, in the grand state of confusion, we have tanoak, madrone, California Bay Laurel (aka Oregon Myrtle), California black walnut, and the chapparel root burls like manzanita, chemise, and ceyanothus. But, they're almost impossible to find commercially since the CalOak sawmill in Oroville shut down. We have to use our chainsaws and that makes for costly board feet!
And don't forget the best of all - douglas fir. Not the knotty 2x4s of home depot fame - the old growth that's almost gone nowadays with its straight and tight grain and golden color.
TMT, I certainly would agree with your assessment of old growth Doug-fir as a fine cabinetwood. I wrote an article on this topic for Fine Woodworking a decade or so ago. Doug-fir doesn't get the credit it deserves as a cabinet wood...probably because it is so associated with general construction as the standard for virtually all building codes when they were first developed prior to World War II...And it's high volume use as a rotary cut veneer for inexpensive (ugly) plywood hasn't helped its image much either.
Old Growth, coastal Doug-fir has an average specific gravity of 0.45, which is identical to genuine mahogany...and slower growing "interior", Rocky Mountain stock is sometimes even a little denser...So, it's strong enough for many furniture applications...And when milled to expose its linear, "virtical grain", it has a very attractive pin-striped figure. Unfortunately, being as it's the most plentiful single species of softwood in North America (probably in the world, when measured on the basis of the biomass of remaining reserves) it just doesn't seem precious enough to be taken seriously in the finer crafts.
Stanley's argument that you have some nice hardwoods out there is certainly valid, but I think several of your softwoods don't get the credit they deserve as very acceptable species for many craft and furniture applications. Your Port Orford cedar, yellow cedar, Douglas-fir and yew (when you can find it in large enough dimensions) are all very credible cabinet woods. Even incense cedar, while a little soft for furniture use, is a very nice wood to work with.
I think one of the big problems with both DF and Pacific yew is its V E R Y long grain and its tendency to sliver. I did a lot of DF moulding and millwork for a house I lived in and the slivers I would get were almost lethal. I would carefully machine an edge and then when I would start sanding it, I would be pierced by wickedly sharp mega-slivers.
I also did a geometric carving in some Pacific yew and I had a difficult time maintaining precision because the wood's tendency to run (sliver) along the grain.
The other reality that I had not experienced before was the pronounced tendency of DF to photo-oxidize. To do any renovation would require a several year wait for the wood to change color -- if I stained or dyed it, after photo-oxidation, then in several years it would be too dark.
The other wood out here that rarely, if ever, gets mentioned in California torreya (Torreya californica). Supposedly it is a premier carving wood and from the few samples I have seen, I would believe it because of its uniformity of grain (pore structure) and the fact that it is of medium density.
I've been on the receiving end of a Doug-fir sliver or two in my time and they're absolutely wicked. I read somewhere (Panshin and De Zeeuw; Textbook of Wood Technology, I think?) that douglas-fir contains a terpene that is extremely irritating and causes the wound to heal very slowly.
I've never worked with torreya. It's in the yew family (Taxaceae)...So, I'd assume it's finer textured and a little denser than most softwoods...at least other yews that I have experimented with seem to fit that description. I've heard it's a blonde wood, as opposed to the yews which tend to be tan in color. In the Orient, they express oil out of the seeds of their native torreya and use it for cooking. But given yew's toxic reputation, it's a culinary experience I think I'll pass on...Although, If you get a chance Stanley, you might give it a try and let me know how you feel in the morning.
Too bad one of my old roommates isn't around. He would literally ingest anything if there was the remotest possibility it would change his momentary consciousness -- we could give it to him but the fact that he is now death must attest to the fact that such practices are not really a good idea.
As I remember the wood of California torreya is a mellow yellowish tan in color and has a distinctive spicy odor. Every time I have seen the wood it was in the form of large carving blocks that were priced higher than I could afford so I never got a sample. The Pacific yew I have acquired has a reddish hue/cast to the heartwood -- more red than tan but then again my color vision has some limitations (as do 1 in 10 males).
And because DF is so splinter/sliver prone, I am very reluctant to make furniture from it as I would not like someone suing me for getting a chunk stuck in their thigh (as might happen from a table leg or apron). I would even hate to test the validity of an exclusionary liability clause for such occurance in the courts. I'll stick with Bigleaf maple instead just to be safe.
Jon
I may be way off track but down in this corner of the world meranti is often referred to as Pacific Maple, being I believe one of the Shorea spp.
Don
Don, I don't know about the common name; "Pacific maple" in that I've never heard it before. Meranti is rather coarse textured and usually reddish brown in color....Much more mahogany-like than maple-like in appearance.
You're right about meranti being among the Shorea species...but it's more a collection of species, sorted by the lumber trade on the basis of color. It is also usually broken down into light red and dark red meranti. The dark red (which is also usually a little denser) has relatively good decay resistance and is now marketed worldwide as a moderately priced decking.
I think of meranti as basically an up scale lauan (AKA; " Philippine mahogany") and it's among the better of the Shoreas for cabinet making purposes. There are over 70 species in the Shorea genus, native from India to the Philippines and they range in density from as soft as basswood (linden) to much harder than white oak. They also range in color from grayish white to dark reddish brown.
I wear leather gloves hand sanding DF. I keep masking tape, glue, and toothpicks nearby to glue the splinters back down.
Yes, I've removed some DF swords too from my hands too!
Edited 6/8/2003 1:26:10 AM ET by telemiketoo
Red Alder (aka Oregon Alder, Western Alder, Pacific Coast Alder) isn't native east of the Cascades except for a few small scattered places in Idaho. LOL I suppose Weyerhauser might be stupid enough to ship it to the east coast before shipping it back...
Regards,
Kevin
Kevin,
Weyerhauser probably doesn't ship other than to my hardwood supplier--maybe through a broker--but my supplier says he has to deal with a vendor somewhere east.
I pay $2.70 a board foot for 4/4 rough for a wood I burned for years as trash. Maybe if I was a Bigfoot instead of a Duck I could find better deals.
Where'd PD say he got that maple? And what color rooster tail was he using?
Tom
Edited 6/6/2003 6:09:47 PM ET by TomB
I know it doesn't make sense. I lived in an area that grew a great amount of winter lettuce and other assorted vegetables. While the stuff was growing just miles from the stores they had to get there produce from Los Angeles that was 5 hours away. You live right where these tress are grown harvested and milled and I can buy it cheaper in Southern California. A lot of things about the distribution system will only confuse you and then most likely make you mad.
PD,
I spent yesterday afternoon with my niece's husband, just back from manning a Patriot missile battery in Iraq.
He's safe and sound.
Put my wood whine in perspective.
To any and all: Find a Vet. Tell she/he Thanks.
PD--Happy Sawdust!
Tom
I have welcomed my son home from his tour of duty on the Teddy Roosevelt
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