I was asked to build 4 maple handrails.. today.. An emergency for a contractor .. anyway.. not the question..

So I agreed as a favor.

First rail went fine.. straight.. good..

The next three had what I call " Shake " in the face of the maple.. I dont know if that is the right word.. Random checks in the edge and face grain..

This is eastern maple.

So what was to be a simple process, turned into a nightmare.. I ended up veneering 3 edges and one face .. added hours to the project..

As it is .. only 3 of the 4 handrails are done.. Its 11:15 and I stopped because of noise.. I feel bad.. they needed this done for the morning..

So why .. why does this maple have these random checks.. or split flakes ?