Fiddleback Wood!


RichardA

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   I went to buy some oak from a new supplier today.  I love this guy, he and I have a lot in common. Similar taste in beer and booze, and Harley's and wood!  How could I not ?  Any how, I bought about 50 board feet of oak for a dresser I'm about to begin! And he started throwing chunks of wood in my truck, that he said was in his way and he couldn't either sell or use!  He tossed in a 12 ft x 7" board of curly maple, saying He has to keep moving this piece out of his way every time he needs to get something. Did I complain?  Not by a long shot!  Then he tossed in 4 pieces of 4x6 x48" that he said were fiddleback, but he wasn't sure what species the wood was.   I'm going to run a plane over these boards in the morning and post pics here and hope you guys can help me determine what I have and how best to use it!

   I couldn't wait till morning so here's a few pics, The wood has a reddish hue, and looks like it could be oak, but for it's size it's heavier than oak of the same size, and the grain isn't open as oak is.   I know several woods produce fiddleback, and that it's mostly used by luthiers. I'm not a luthier, but I want to use this wood, it looks so damn good. And boy does it make a plane chatter, no matter what the setting!

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Be careful planing curly or fiddleback grain ! Unless your knives are razor sharp curly grain will tear wickedly. I use my drum sander. There are techniques using a hand plane, mineral spirits, and some skill if that is the direction you want to go.

   I noticed, with all the chattering on my jack plane!  I went to my #4 and it cleaned up very nicely.  I don't intend to stay strictly with hand planes. I'd like to mill it into 1" boards, then run it through my 735!  I have an idea  for trying to use it as a gift for the guy that tossed it in my truck.  I'm still unsure what wood it is. With it's reddish tone, I was wondering if it could be some specie of maple?

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Hey barry I would agree a soft maple species of some sort

   Correct, a soft maple! However after several side trips to various forestry sites and a actual trip to the Ag extension and to the forestry offices, here in Tennessee!  I've discovered that this fiddleback maple is designated as Ambrosia Maple!   That's a new one on me!  But I like the stuff!  Easy to work, and beautiful grain and color!  It does tend to fray when cut, but sands out beautifully!

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The ambrosia beetle drills into the tree and leaves the fungus that stains the wood with blue/ black/ greenish streaks . The curly grain was already there.

   Thank's Steve!  That's what the forestry guy told me. He also said that for the most part, that beetle generally only bores into red maple.  For some unknown reason.

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   Correct, a soft maple! However after several side trips to various forestry sites and a actual trip to the Ag extension and to the forestry offices, here in Tennessee!  I've discovered that this fiddleback maple is designated as Ambrosia Maple!   That's a new one on me!  But I like the stuff!  Easy to work, and beautiful grain and color!  It does tend to fray when cut, but sands out beautifully!

 

That's a bit of an odd designation since it has nothing to do with the species. It does look like red maple, and it is ambrosia maple, but very unimpressive as ambrosia, much more impressive for the curl.  Lots of woods get ambrosia stain. My site has pages for both ambrosia maple and curly maple (where I include fiddleback) and I'd put these pieces on the curly page, not the ambrosia page.

 

See here for more ambrosia wood examples (in addition to maple):

 

http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/_ambrosia.htm

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That's a bit of an odd designation since it has nothing to do with the species. It does look like red maple, and it is ambrosia maple, but very unimpressive as ambrosia, much more impressive for the curl.  Lots of woods get ambrosia stain. My site has pages for both ambrosia maple and curly maple (where I include fiddleback) and I'd put these pieces on the curly page, not the ambrosia page.

 

See here for more ambrosia wood examples (in addition to maple):

 

http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/_ambrosia.htm

I checked your site and tend to agree with you and the forestry folks. However, the Ambrosia signature showed up in much larger proportions in a couple of the other pieces I milled.  Thank's for your input!

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Small sand shark....sometimes when you're fishing with shrimp, they hit it like they weigh 20 pounds and then head for Europe for about 20 feet. They little guy was released unharmed except for his pride.  The bad thing is NONE of his friends down in the deep will believe his story!

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Oh Tim, you had me digging and now rolling! I was trying to relate this comment to Ambrosia. Yes, there is a lot of confusion in this world when we label items by traits instead of specie or origin. This is precisely why I resist being called stupid:-)

    I refuse to resist being called stupid, It gives me a leg up on the real idiots!

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Heyyyyy...a few weeks ago, I caught a 4 foot shark and tired him out before grabbing him by the tail and putting him in the boat.  I only THOUGHT he was tired.  I looked like a fat Chinese acrobat sitting in the chair with both feet high in the air escaping all those teeth!!!  A good block plane to the head would have slowed him down!!!

I love figured woods....the grain's indecision as to which way it wants to go is great.  If I could get figured woods here in SC, I'd build all sorts of stuff out of it. 

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