Spotting curly wood

[huskyhank]

Mind boggling!

There's someone who can use it at that size.
Lordy that is beautiful!

 

[aquan8tor]

Here is a small piece from the tree pictured earlier for all the naysayers. This chunk is going to another member here to make pistol grips, this is also rough cut so the pictures are not that great.

WOW!!!! Holy cow man!! I didn't mean to sound like I was downplaying your log; just that in some cases it isn't there. Yours sure is!! So, any chance you'd like to do some trading for turning blanks??

 

[gemniii]

Those are beautiful.
Why not make chainsaw starter pull handles?

 

[Backwood]

That is some awesome maple for sure, but its not what I would call curly maple.

 

[Hddnis]

Guys that are into pen turning might want those blocks. They'll cut them down even smaller and turn pens out of them.




Mr. HE

 

[Oldtimer]

Knock the bark off, if it's curly it will be obvious. Raised "rings". The closer and denser ("Tight") the curl, the more valuable it is. If it's a good one, you will see the curl through the bark.
I burn curly soft maple all the time. It isn't "tight" enough to bother with.

That stuff in the pics above isn't curly. It's "burled" for lack of a better term.

Here's a good link to a pictoral of different types of curly wood.

http://www.jordanmusic.com/wood.htm

 

[pinemartin]

Knock the bark off, if it's curly it will be obvious. Raised "rings". The closer and denser ("Tight") the curl, the more valuable it is. If it's a good one, you will see the curl through the bark.
I burn curly soft maple all the time. It isn't "tight" enough to bother with.

That stuff in the pics above isn't curly. It's "burled" for lack of a better term.

Here's a good link to a pictoral of different types of curly wood.

http://www.jordanmusic.com/wood.htm

This is the biggest "BURL" I have ever seen then.

 

[BobL]

I somehow missed this thread. That is real amazing wood! Pen turners will go nuts for that stuff, they'd even pay good money for it. Stick it on epay and see what happens.

 

[super3]

Question about curing.

What is the best way to cure these pieces so they won't crack when drying?

 

[NeoTree]

Ya all my peices i saved from the wood pile are cracked, I can't bring myself to burn them though. I would like to find a way to cure them too.

 

[BobL]

Question about curing.

What is the best way to cure these pieces so they won't crack when drying?

Coat all the surfaces with endgrain sealer should do it.

 

[bobt]

I am curious if those small pieces could be "fast cured" in the microwave? Mind you, I am not advocating this practice, just wondering. I heard of a guy who did bowl turnings on green wood several years ago, and dried them that way without cracking, or so it was said.

By the way, that figured wood is certainly beautiful!

 

[LAndrews]

Best clues I know of are a visibly wavy bark surface and the stuff is hella tough to split. Just cut one round off a log and try to split it - if it fights back, it's probably pretty curly. Of course, that's relative to a length of the same wood with straight grain.

Seems like it's almost always a tree that's leaning... Be careful with the wood, because it likes to pinch blades.

 

[NeoTree]

Well i did it again, I cut a nice cherry today, and behold i noodled the old stump and found it had nice curl to it. I had to cut it to rounds because if i did'nt there was a line of people who were waiting to get it. I'm gonna split one section open and see if theres anything i can do with it. Will people pay money for these peices, I don't have a mill so for the time being i can't do anything with them. I hear curly cherry is much more sought after than maple.
pictures soon.

 

[Curlycherry1]

Knock the bark off, if it's curly it will be obvious. Raised "rings". The closer and denser ("Tight") the curl, the more valuable it is. If it's a good one, you will see the curl through the bark.
I burn curly soft maple all the time. It isn't "tight" enough to bother with.

That stuff in the pics above isn't curly. It's "burled" for lack of a better term.

Here's a good link to a pictoral of different types of curly wood.

http://www.jordanmusic.com/wood.htm

Old Timer is 100% right, that maple in the picture is burled or more likely nothing at all. I have seen it too many times to count. But true well curled maple will show up under the bark. You can see it in this piece from my shop. This is heavy curled piece and you can see the undulations in the wood under the bark. The bark was smooth and gave no hint of the curl.

Curly cherry and curly walnut are a lot more valuable but they are hard to see. They rarely if ever show up in the bark. Cutting them open is the only way to find it. Curly walnut is one of my favorites. Here is a coffee table I made for my SIL.

 

[NeoTree]

Thanks Curly, and beautiful work on the table, looks nice!

 

[super3]

Well i did it again, I cut a nice cherry today, and behold i noodled the old stump and found it had nice curl to it. I had to cut it to rounds because if i did'nt there was a line of people who were waiting to get it. I'm gonna split one section open and see if theres anything i can do with it. Will people pay money for these peices, I don't have a mill so for the time being i can't do anything with them. I hear curly cherry is much more sought after than maple.
pictures soon.

Hey what happened to the pics of the cherry? Did I miss it in another thread?

Update on the pieces pinemartin sent me:

I took a local sawmills advice on the drying. He suggested letting them dry for 9-12mo. I clamped them in between 2 bricks with 1/2" strips in between and plenty of room for air on the sides. Just put wax on the ends. It has been a year now and only 2 out of the 14 pieces cracked. I'm tickled :censored:less!

More to come when I get them worked up for the grips.

 

[curlybirtch]

Curly Maple

Here is some curly maple that I am using to build a bed out of, pictured is one of the posts.View attachment 179203View attachment 179204

 

[super3]

Wow! Old thread. I didn't think it had been this long since I dried them beautiful pieces @pinemartin sent me.

Pics were lost in the hack, but I saved them.
These are the original pics,

 

[super3]

Those were the ones that were cut too narrow for what I was wanting them for.
Man, aint they purdy?

He offered to send them to me for nothing.

He later sent some a bit bigger and I finally got around to finishing them.They aren't quite as wild looking as the first ones.

First coat of tung oil.