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Thread: Price of quilted maple

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    15

    Price of quilted maple

    I went to a lumber store here in Houston this weekend and was knocked on my butt at the price of their Quilted Maple. They were asking $17.90 per board foot, for the partially milled standard pieces . I was afraid to ask about their AAAA lumber. Is this a reasonable price per board foot?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Phoenix AZ Area
    Posts
    2,505
    I think it depends on how nice the material is. I paid over $50 a bd ft for AAAAA curly maple. For the stuff I needed, this was the best price available. Some quick googling "quilted maple" and price will get to a ballpark. Retail is usually 2X commercial in my experience...joe

  3. #3
    $17.90 b/f will likely be low-end figure. Expect high grade figure to run $40-$175 per b/f (I'm not kidding). Most of the really good stuff is snatched up by instrument manufacturers (Gibson, Paul Reed Smith, etc). Well, that is the logs which make it to the sawmill, and aren't hand picked by the veneer mills and dealers. High quality quilted maple veneer can go for $6 - $20 a square foot.

    I'm attaching a picture to give you an idea of what the high-grade stuff looks like:
    Attached Images Attached Images

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Westphalia, Michigan
    Posts
    425
    Figured Maple prices vary all over the place. Mostly the price depends on the quality or rareity of the figure. I know a birdseye maple buyer who sold a log not to long ago for over $100 per brd ft. Quilt and birdseye typically are considered the pinnical in the figured maple world. I would consider buying over the internet. Many vendors have pictures of the actual board for sale so you can choose your pain. Also, the type of figure varies a lot. Quilt can be of the 'popcorn' type, and the degree of 3 demensional quilting can be eye poping to subtle. You ought to see the spalted quilt. That can be very pricey. Birdseye can be light 'eye' salt and pepper 'eye' (small), long eye, nickel eye, heavy eye with curl figure, and more. To get the best stuff you need to usually go to a first tier vendor. www.birdseyecreations.com is one one of them. For quilt check out www.nwtimber.com

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    15

    That is very nice figure

    The boards I looked at in the "cutoff" area were standard figure according to the employee. I did see some of the better quilted and curly maple in their racks. The better looking stuff had stickers marked AAAA and it looked like it would be expensive. I was just looking, as I prefer to go a different lumber yard but it was already closed by that time. I like to know the price first, so I can find pieces in my price range. Heck, I have several pieces of maple, oak, walnut and others that are just sitting waiting on an idea. I just wanted to add some quilted maple to the inventory.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    SCal
    Posts
    1,478
    Lee.....

    That is some nice QM! droool.....

  7. #7
    Just as a point of reference, I often pay $175-200 for a guitar top billet of 21" x 7" x 8/4. That's about 2 BF which makes it about $100/BF. This is for instrument grade 5A figured material.
    Jack Briggs
    Briggs Guitars

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Bethel, Delaware
    Posts
    34
    The figure in that picture is stunning... $18 /bf for quilted or birdseye Maple is reasonable, and usually much more for exceptionally figured stock.

    As stated, the highest end material makes it's way into musical instruments. Check out Hearne Hardwoods site, they usually have a good selection of quilted and birdseye on their website. Groff Lumber in PA also has nicely figured Maple, but you need to go to their store since they don't have high end website.

  9. #9
    Hi Jack,
    Just curious, are you getting quilted or curly maple billets for that price? Also, do you have a website/link to pics of your work?
    Lee

  10. #10
    Lee,

    The OP asked about quilted maple, so that's what I'm referring to. Flamed or curly maples usually are a little bit less, but lately are harder to find in Bigleaf (Western) maple, my preferred species.

    Check my profile for website link. Better pics on my forum site (link from website). Thanks for asking.


    Cheers,
    Jack Briggs
    Briggs Guitars

  11. Quote Originally Posted by Jack Briggs View Post
    Just as a point of reference, I often pay $175-200 for a guitar top billet of 21" x 7" x 8/4. That's about 2 BF which makes it about $100/BF. This is for instrument grade 5A figured material.

    Jack - you are getting a bargain! We pay a lot more than that and we buy whole trees at a time from the feller. Plus we cannot get them because of great demand for the really good stuff. All the top guitar companies as well as the veneer makers and the Japanese have been buying up this stuff and have guys running around in the forests bidding on standing trees.

    Here's a link to our best quilt. That's about twice what you pay for yours.
    http://www.grizzly.com/products/T1153

  12. #12
    how do they tell a standing tree has the primo quilt? I have at least some curly maple from a tree that came down on my property, and it's sister silver maple still stands. Both were aged to be at least 125 years old by a tree specialist. Could I safely assume the other has at least curly maple. They are silver maples, which I understood as nothing special.

  13. [quote=Jack Camillo;900051]how do they tell a standing tree has the primo quilt? quote]

    They can usually tell from the bark on the highly figured trees. However, these guys walk around with a small, sharp axe and discreetly peel a little bit of the bark to make sure. I have a specimen curly maple billet that I saved which includes the exterior part of the tree (where you peel off the bark) and I have never seen anything like it! Unfortunately, I was only able get 4 billets off that tree because the tree belonged to someone else and I bought the billets from him. These were money-no-object billets. Private stash, of course.

  14. #14
    "I have a specimen curly maple billet that I saved which includes the exterior part of the tree (where you peel off the bark) and I have never seen anything like it! "

    Thanks, Shiraz, for the explanation. Guess what - now you have to post a picture of that exterior part! (If you're so inclined, that is). Think of it as educating the community.
    jack

  15. #15
    To the OP: Forgive me for the slight hijack

    Jack (Briggs),
    WOW! Great site. Loved the forum as well. Your pro shots of the guitars are to die for! Are you doing your own photography?

    BTW, over the years I have accumulated several bigleaf resawn sets that are in the neighborhood of 1" thickness with atomic curl, and a couple of eastern (red maple) billets and one piece tops. If you are interested shoot me a pm.
    Lee

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