[OP]
Contributor
At our shared shop, we have a small 'lumber yard.' I found a piece of maple that seemed to be about the right size for a box I wanted to build.
Milled it up, cut it down. Coincidentally, its got some figure to it. Started cutting dovetails. Finished the dovetails, went to plane the slightly proud dovetails I cut.
Maple may be the most miserable wood I've ever tried to work with. Its impossible to cut with hand tools, impossible to plane. Give me ANYTHING ELSE next time!
Contributor
Yes but figured Maple is so pretty! I rely on saws, scrapers, and abrasives when working with figured Maple. Even the straight blade planer and jointer are avoided. There is a thread a few thousand posts back where a SMC hand plane expert shows the right planes and right techniques. It shows a very high angle plane and a scraper plane.
https://www.google.com/search?q=plan...578&dpr=1#ip=1
Last edited by Maurice Mcmurry; 03-15-2024 at 9:00 AM.
Best Regards, Maurice
Contributor
I'm masochistic I suppose but I love working with maple... trick is to do what the wood wants, not what you want lol.
Contributor
I’ve heard maple is good for making this stuff called paper.
Aj
Contributor
Figured maple can be a bear. As said, high angle planes and scrapers are the only way I can deal with stuff, besides sandpaper. End grain works the same as regular maple, however. And plain old maple works fine with hand tools. I hand planed some this morning w/o issue.
Someone here always says "Sharp solves all manner of problems.". Nothing could be truer when working with figured woods.
John
Contributor
I am building two of these out of Rock Maple, mostly with hand tools ...Originally Posted by James Jayko
Progress to date ...
The build is on the hand tool forum
I have used Rock Maple on a number of occasions, again generally hand tools are a significant part of the build. Yes, it is hard stuff ... but not as hard as my local West Australian woods (such as Jarrah and SheOak). I love it as it finishes beautifully, takes detail so well, and has a gentle appearance.
Dovetails in Rock Maple ...
Regards from Perth
Derek
Contributor
Hi Maurice
That thread was written in 2011, and the rules have been re-written since then. Time was that a high cutting angle was the first defence against tear out when planing. now it is the "double iron", which is a closed up chipbreaker on a standard angle bed. Very effective, and the lower cutting angle is both easier to push, and also leaves a cleaner surface.
An article to read: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ToolRev...omPlanes4.html
Straight shavings indicate a closed up chipbreaker ...
Regards from Perth
Derek
Contributor
Here is a picture of the sort of work I like it for. I rely heavily on sanding and scraping.
James Jayko, The shared workspace sounds interesting. I am going to attend the next open house at Sawdust Studio here in our town. They jut had another nice article appear in the news.
https://www.columbiamissourian.com/n...aef8cbf17.html
IMG_1081.jpg
Best Regards, Maurice
Contributor
Im in the middle of a hard maple cabinet build and am so tired of the stuff. Cabinets are 80% woodfiller now.
Contributor
I feel you. Hard maple is one of my least favorite woods to work with, especially if it has any figure or reversing grain.
One thing I recently discovered is that it's not enough to just have a sharp iron. You really have to set your plane up extremely precisely. That means a closed mouth and a tight chip breaker. And not just tight to the edge, but one sturdy enough to prevent ANY flex in the blade. You might try bending your chip breaker down a bit to get more downward pressure on the edge of your blade. Or get at thicker iron and chip breaker. It makes a big difference when planning against the grain in maple. I was surprised at how much tear out was being caused by a blade chatter so subtle, that I wasn't even aware it was happening. A small back bevel doesn't hurt either. And scrapers and sandpaper are always there if you need them.
Power tools aren't much better, as the wood likes to burn. But slowing the machine's speed down (if possible) and using sharp bits and blades goes a long way. My DW735 thickness planer handles it surprisingly well on the slower speed. Especially considering how difficult it is with hand planes.
Thankfully it saws pretty easily with hand saws. The grain doesn't want to take over and pull you off your line. And while chisels can be hard to work through, they're easy to control. So with a bigger mallet, it's not too bad. However, some boards will want to warp and bind when you rip them, and I've found when that happens it's easiest to just pull the saw out, start over, and use a wedge to keep it open. That stuff can pinch a blade really hard if you let it, so re-establishing a kerf can really help.
There are lots of little tricks you'll learn working with maple, and it'll make you a better woodworker the more you work it. I find hard maple more difficult to work than many other harder woods like Osage Orange, Padauk and Purpleheart, even if the grain reverses on them. I guess it's the closed grain. But it's far from impossible, even if it is far from forgiving.
Contributor
One trick I use with figured maple is to wet the surface with water or alternatively mineral spirits before power or hand machining. This seems to relieve just enough brittleness to minimize tear out. I don't have problems with rust on tools after doing this as my steel tooling is dried immediately after use. You don't need to soak the wood, just wet the surface.
Contributor
I’m building doors and drawer fronts with hard white maple. Not much figure at all, just a wave here and there. Maybe that’s the difference: my boards are planing easily, and the result is mirror smooth. Did I just get lucky, or is this thread only about highly figured maple?
Contributor
Yeah, if it's not figured or doesn't have any reversing grain or other grain related issues, it tends to work pretty easily, other than just being a somewhat harder wood to push through. When I buy hard maple, usually about 80% of it works fine. Then maybe 15% gives me trouble that I have to plan around, and the last 5% I wish I had thrown away before wasting so much time on it.
Hard maple also can sometimes have a lot of stress built up into the wood, so a perfectly straight board from the mill can warp like crazy when ripped. I had a hard maple board explode into shards and splinters on a table saw a while back because the saw released so much internal stress. It was the first time I had ever seen that. I've had boards crack and split on a table saw, but never explode!
Also, like I noted above, it tends to plane better with a power thickness planer than a hand plane. While I've gotten tear out on a power thickness planer before, it's nowhere near as likely as it is with a hand plane, in my experience. I think taking tiny bites versus long strips makes a difference in difficult grain.
Contributor
Derek,I am building two of these out of Rock Maple, mostly with hand tools ...
Progress to date ...
The build is on the hand tool forum
I have used Rock Maple on a number of occasions, again generally hand tools are a significant part of the build. Yes, it is hard stuff ... but not as hard as my local West Australian woods (such as Jarrah and SheOak). I love it as it finishes beautifully, takes detail so well, and has a gentle appearance.
Dovetails in Rock Maple ...
Regards from Perth
Derek
Stunning work. Ironically clear rock maple is much easier to work with vs figured maple, even if it's soft maple. I got very lucky and all of these parts for a vanity went through my strait blade planner without tear out.
20201130_190801.jpg
Distraction could lead to dismemberment!
Contributor
I love hard maple for so many reasons. I can't think of one thing that I hate about it.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
