Curly maple

[RRSsawshop]

I've asked this question in my local area with no results..How do you know if you have or cut a "Curly Maple"???What do you look for???I'm clueless....

 

[Curlycherry1]

I've asked this question in my local area with no results..How do you know if you have or cut a "Curly Maple"???What do you look for???I'm clueless....

In really good cases it will show up as undulations in the bark and in the wood under the bark. In lesser cases it will only be present when you open the log up on a mill. Here is a photo of a piece of soft maple with the bark still on part of it and you can see the curly figure in the outside of the board. This is a pretty high figure board so it shows up really well at the outside of the tree. With hard maple it can be much more subtle and may not project to the outside as well as shown in the picture.

I work with a lot of figured hardwoods, hence my screen name. Birdseye maple also can be seen from the outside of the tree and if you do a Google search you will find a publication put out by WI about how to identify birdseye maple. I also have birdseye walnut logs that show the birdseyes on the outside of the bark. Those are extremely rare and so you have virtually no chance of finding them, I just like to rub it in that I have some. Curly cherry and curly walnut sometimes show up under the bark, but those are rare cases. They often just show up as a chatoyance when the wood is planed and you would never spot it without looking for it when the boards are sawn from the log.

 

[RCR 3 EVER]

In our woods we have been told we have some Curly maples and they are identifieable. At least on ours the bark is very thick and "curly" and the tree trunk is wider in diameter at the base up to the first major branches then the bark appears normal and the tree thins down in diameter near the top of tree.

I hope to make a mantle and fireplace surround out of one of the trees someday.

Hope these photos help, they do not show the whole tree and 1 photo is close up of the bark.

 

[Curlycherry1]

That maple looks interesting. Much of that rough bark is characteristic of birdseye maple and I encourage you to look at this field guide and see if you can spot any eyes coming through to the bark. Do NOT damage any of the bark. That supposedly will cause the heartwood to expand and decrease the value of the log.

http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/10800

Unfortunately I have cut maples like that up for firewood and they can be nothing but plain old ugly barked maple. Sometimes they are curly or Birdseye, but they can be just plain old wood too. Mother Nature loves to mess with us.