October 19, 201015 yr Author An Amish guy at a lumber yard told me that curly Walnut occurs when the tree is stressed during growth. Such as high wind, heavy snow on limbs, etc. Sounded good to me until I saw all the different types of maple figuring. I don't know the cause, but the results are beautiful.
October 19, 201015 yr Figured Maple is as Josh stated, the figure can be caused by a variety of circumstances, the crotch of the tree will cause some dramatic figure, figure just simply means the direction the grain took, instead of straight. Curls are smaller lines of figuration, and quilted is like curls yet more substantial in length. Burled, completely different then the above examples. The burl has no grain, it is a conglomerate of rounds, swirls, when I look at burls, I see the human brain in them, that is what burls remind me of, a bunch of brainy noodles plotted all over the place.
October 19, 201015 yr Hello Ron, That's the crazy thing about maple, for you never know what is going to appear and until it is cut will you actually know what to expect. Another thing is when a log is Quarter sawn there are all sorts of things that may appear. However most curly, tiger, quilted and any other figure might appear are cut from the silver maple or har maple as some like to call it. The soft maple comes from the sugar maple trees. The bark on a sugar maple will run parallel to each other and be rough, while the Silver Maple's bark is thin and flakes off fairly easy. Somewhat like the shag bark Hickory. Ralph
October 19, 201015 yr Ron, I have five short boards in my storage area that are curly maple and unless I forget it tomorrow I will bring one to the shop and plane it so we all can see the curly figure that is in it. As mentioned by others the figure on any tree has a lot to do with the stresses it indured during it's growing over the years. For instance if a tree grew on the windward side of the hill ot mountain for that matter it will have all kinds of stress that when sawn will actually spread apart as the board is being ripped on the table saw or it might close so tight that you have to put a wedge in the saw cut in order to complete the cut. 9 out of 10 times I will toss that piece and others like it away to cut them in small lengths for bracing or some other use. Ralph
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