I have some quilted maple I purchased from West Penn Hardwoods, and they rated it musical instrument quality. I've never worked with grain this wacky before. Can anyone offer any suggestions or tips/tricks on working with this wood? I scrape rather than sand, but I still have to thickness and joint the wood. Any advice at all will be much appreciated.
Garrett
Not wood to be finding out IF your tools are sharp. Any routing across end grain should have backing stock. Table saw should have a 0 clearance insert. Try to stay away from coarse grit sanding stock personally I would use nothing below 220. Finish it with wattco and beeswax
EJ.
Right. Keep them sharp. I work with curly maple a lot. It is really beautiful when done right.
When jointing and planing, take only light passes, and read the grain carefully. Also, lightly dampen the wood at each pass (I mean lightly). This will also help minimize tearout.
Don't sand it. You willnot only abrade the wood and minimize the beautiful curl, you will also burnish the wood, preventing a finish from penetrating.
Keep the tools very sharp, take very light cuts, use as massive a plane as possible. The only planes that really do well with me are my infills, and a few Steve Knight wooden planes, with massive irons. Also, my one Japanese smoother is my tool of choice for finishing it. The key is sharp, mass and light cuts.
As others have stated, very sharp tools are a must. I use handplanes to thickness and joint the wood, and the best advice I can give is to have them set for a light cut and be very careful at reading the grain direction. For thicknessing with planes, I usually use a toothing iron on really nasty grain. It scores the wood and then you can come back with your smoother set for a very light cut to finish it off. When jointing curly and quilted maple, I sometimes find that I have to take a final pass or two with a smoother set for the lightest possible cut, just to give the edge a nice smooth feel.
I normally achieve a great final surface with handplanes; usually my low-angle smoothers. If I run into trouble with them, I try a high-angle (55 degree) plane, and if that still doesn't do the job, I'll finish with a scraper.
The quilted maple drawer-front in the following picture was done with my LV low-angle smoother:
Rodney Myrvaagnes Opionated old geezer
Faith-based economics: It's deja voodoo all over again
When thicknessing, I dampen the wood and take light cuts with the thickness planer. When I get close, I change to a drum sander. All tooling must be very sharp. When routing edges, route endgrain first.
Thanks, everyone, for your input (I would hate to ruin this wood).
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.