curly maple wood description

[Martian]

in the middle of a bild right now, but always looking at wood. on curlymaple.com, What is meant by sapwood one side, or sapwood 2 sides? should either be avoided?

[HoGo]

On US maples the heartwood is usually colored dark or streaked so woodworkers try to avoid it. Clean boards are typically cut from the sapwood till the saw reaches dark heartwood and then the log is rotated 90degrees and more boards cut. some of the boards cut closer to center of tree can have heartwood on one side but one side is clean sapwood. For general joinery such boards are OK as just one side is visible but for carved top you want just sapwood to avoid streaked look.
European maples don't have colored heartwood so whatever way you cut the wood it is always same color (unless it has other defects).

[tree]

That website sells other wood besides maple, woods that typically show more color difference between "sapwood" (light color) and "heartwood" (more pronounced color). Take cherry for example - the sapwood is nearly white, which contrasts starkly with the reddish brown of the heartwood.

I suspect the technical properties of sapwood and heartwood are similar enough as to be indistinguishable, at least structurally. Perhaps they take finish a little differently, but I doubt there would be any reason other than aesthetic (i.e. "eye of the beholder") as to whether to avoid sapwood.

[Martian]

ah so sap wood both sides, gives me more options on jointing, correct?. thank you

[Martian]

one other question is there a preference form hard to soft maple? I have a nice piece of hard maple I purchased years ago from Rare Earth. I guess I could see a benefit in the neck for structural qualities. thanks again

[thistle3585]

I'd suggest looking at Orcas Island Tonewood. Bruce, aka Spruce, is a regular on the cafe. He has outstanding prices and service.

[billhay4]

Ditto what thistle3585 says.
Bill

[Martian]

I have, a piece of bearclaw I bought from him a long time ago , I need to find a mando reason for,haha

[HoGo]

one other question is there a preference form hard to soft maple? I have a nice piece of hard maple I purchased years ago from Rare Earth. I guess I could see a benefit in the neck for structural qualities. thanks again

Any of the maples can be good for necks if properly selected and made. Old Gibsons were supposedly made mostly of hard maple (stated in their catalogs, but reality could be that some other woods sneaked in without notice). Most current makers use many maple types with good results, I've used red in slab, quartered and european maples all with good results. Just like spruces it goes down to personal preferences.

[Will Williamson]

What about the number of rings per inch on maple?
Is Maple with tight rings, lets say 16 per inch, any stronger or lighter than maple with 8 rings per inch?
A lot is mentioned about top woods, with tight grain, there again lets say for instance, 16 lines per inch plus.
To my way of thinking, the maple with tight grain, should weight less, than maple with, few rings per inch.
What has been your experience Hogo?

[tree]

Maple is a "hardwood" (quotations because the term is really only vaguely about how hard the wood is). Xylem cells in hardwoods are fundamentally different from xylem cells in "softwoods"(softwood xylem cells typically are thin-walled at the beginning of the growing season and become thicker-walled and denser toward the end of the growing season). Spruce is a softwood.

Also, maple is diffuse porous; the pores that carry water upward in the living tree are very small and relatively evenly distributed throughout the xylem, which probably makes for a much more homogeneous material (dried wood).

For those reasons, I'd be surprised if annual growth increments (rings) make much difference, tight or wide, in Maple (Acer) species.

[CarlM]

What about the number of rings per inch on maple?
Is Maple with tight rings, lets say 16 per inch, any stronger or lighter than maple with 8 rings per inch?
A lot is mentioned about top woods, with tight grain, there again lets say for instance, 16 lines per inch plus.
To my way of thinking, the maple with tight grain, should weight less, than maple with, few rings per inch.

What people who build archery bows say is that the ratio of late wood to early (spring) wood has more effect than the number of rings. The latewood is harder and more solid, contributing more strength.

[Martian]

It could be said as well, that I have only built 4 mandos, ( one on the way), and have used sitka for the tops, and maple everywhere else which could have contibuted to the similar sound in results with D T. This new mando is hard maple everywhere but the top is Torrefied red spruce

[John Arnold]

Grain count in diffuse porous hardwoods like maple does not seem to correlate with density, hardness, or stiffness.

[HoGo]

Grain count in diffuse porous hardwoods like maple does not seem to correlate with density, hardness, or stiffness.

Even on spruce you can have same count but with thicker summer growth that will result in higher density but still the stiffness doesn't necessarily correlate with that. There is some correlation between density and stiffness of spruce but there can be quite a few outliers. You have to evaluate each piece of wood.