Id This Wood

[lumberjack]

Please

The customers say it came from Europe and was bought in Germany or Austria. They have been told by 2 people that it's Tiger Maple, I told them I haven't a clue but I might know someone that does.

 

[gf beranek]

Right off the bat it looks like maple

 

[Mr. Sir]

Yup, it's maple; known as "tiger" maple due to the coloration and the orientation of the grain.

 

[vharrison]

It is a beautiful piece.

 

[lumberjack]

From wiki:
"This effect is often mistakenly said to be part of the grain of the wood; it is more accurately called "figure", as the distortion is perpendicular to the grain direction."

From what I've read (in the past 5 minutes) "Tiger Maple" is the same as
"Flamed Maple" and "Curly Maple." They can come from a few species of maple and as such aren't actually common names of a given species, but more of a characteristic of the wood discovered after milling it.

 

[stig]

Acer Pseudoplatanus, would be my guess.
What we call maple around here, but the English call sycamore for some perverse reason.

 

[sotc]

Probably cause of the pseudoplatanus. We pseudotsuga that we call fir

 

[stig]

But they call sycamores London planes, so there is really no logic.

Neat new avatar BTW!

 

[woodworkingboy]

Probably Maple, but there is a chance that it could be Birch.

The pic of the side looks very much like Birch....the front more Maple like. They can be very similar in appearance.

 

[Jonseredbred]

Would make a nice gun cabinet

 

[hmm]

it is true that in furniture making they can use different types of wood and just stain them the same color and also get variation of that look.


ie oak will look different then poplar when stained with the same color?

 

[woodworkingboy]

You can stain to similar color, but each wood has it's own grain characteristics that help to identify it. Nothing wrong with mixing woods if the results are pleasing. Scientists generally look at end grain for definitive evaluation, if there is uncertainty. Maple has a certain sheen and mottling that usually indicates it, but sometimes birch or cherry has similar. Time will also bring out differences if the wood isn't heavily stained. Cherry ages to a much darker color than Maple.

 

[Al Smith]

I've always been led to believe that figured wood such as tiger maple,birds eye and things like flame cherry was caused by stresses on the tree as it grew .

The highly prized "fiddle back " is sugar or hard rock maple .From what these people say tiger is from soft maple more commonly red maple . http://www.oldfarmtable.com/tiger_maple.htm

 

[stig]

I have never come across birch with tiger or fiddleback figuring, only birdseye.

 

[Al Smith]

You never know what lies below the bark until you rip it .It's like a treasure hunt .

The only small amount of figured wood I have came from the lower 6 feet of a black cherry growing in a fence row . Very nice grain figure but not much of it,maybe 200-250 board feet at most .

 

[stig]

You never know what lies below the bark until you rip it .It's like a treasure hunt .

.

To a large degree you do, Al.
It is simply a question of practise.
Having been a woodturner for almost 20 years and mostly worked in wood I have cut myself, I have learned to read the telltale signs of ripple, birdseye and all the other figurings to be found in wood.
Just like a faller with a lot of experience can tell faults and weird grain structure at a glance, whereas it catches the newbie unaware.

 

[Al Smith]

I'm certain you can to a certain extent . If however you can hit it one hundred percent of the time,you are in the wrong business because you could make a fortune being a timber cruiser with x-ray eyes .

 

[Al Smith]

On this subject of maples .I'm sure the soft maples grow some place in the wild but where I have no idea .

In my years of tromping through the woods I've never seen any ,only in town type trees that were tansplanted .The local maples in the wild are all sugar maples .

These things get pretty large within about 100 years like this one in the picture that Tom the tree guy took out last week .

 

[woodworkingboy]

I have never come across birch with tiger or fiddleback figuring, only birdseye.

I pulled this photo off the web. One example of figured Birch.

 

[stig]

Jay:1
Stig: 0

I gladly cede the point, that was new to me.
But I now realize that if you cut, what I'd call peacock birch, the right way, the figure is like fiddleback.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Birch must be pretty common in Europe. Some books I have on French furniture show a lot of it being used.

Stig, what is your preferred wood for turning?

 

[stig]

Depends on what I am making.
Any kind of burl or nurl is fun to turn, because you never know quite how it will be inside, once you open it up.
Bark inclusions and cracks can force you to have to change the shape of the bowl midway through the work.
When I turn "ordinary" wood, I'm the one who controls the outcome, with burls you have to go with the flow.

I really like elm burl, and since I have about 10 tons of it stored away, I use it a lot.

The bowl in the last picture is one I made in elm burl for the danish museum of wood. It is only about 2 mm thick overall.

 

[Al Smith]

Wow! That is indeed an example of craftsmanship at it's finest .

 

[MasterBlaster]

Nice bowl, stylish shirt!

 

[Paul B]

nice bowl indeed! what kind of time is involved turning out a big bowl like that?