maple shafts

[cueball1950]

Can someone please tell me what "kind" of maple they use for shafts. I have a large (atleast 150 year old) sugar maple in the back yard plus i have 2 other maple trees out front that are just as old. What kind of maple trees are out front i don't know. I was just curious if any of them or parts of them are worth saving? They must be about 70 feet tall if not higher. Any info would be greatly appreciated...thanks in advance....................mike

 

[WesleyW]

You are about to cut your own tree to make a shaft

 

[MVPCues]

Can someone please tell me what "kind" of maple they use for shafts. I have a large (atleast 150 year old) sugar maple in the back yard plus i have 2 other maple trees out front that are just as old. What kind of maple tress are out front i don't know. I was just curious if any of them or parts of them are worth saving? They must be about 70 feet tall if not higher. Any info would be greatly appreciated...thanks in advance....................mike

Shaft wood is usually hard/sugar maple. The best shaft wood will be in the lower portion of the bole up to the first major whorl where branches begin.

In general....the bole would have to be sectioned, and cut into 3 foot long boards, 1 1/8" thick for shafts. The boards need to be quarter sawn, which is expensive due to loss, and then properly kiln dried. It is no small job.

If the wood (doubtful) has birdseye or curl figure, it could be milled into thicker boards and cut into squares and air dried for butts, but would need to air dry a couple of years at least depending on the environment they are stored in.

The age of the tree may certainly be a plus. There would also be a significant amount of heartwood that is not used for shafts, and not often used for butts.

Kelly

 

[cueball1950]

You are about to cut your own tree to make a shaft

definately not. but some parts of a couple of them are going to have to be trimmed.....................mike

 

[masonh]

Sugar or Black Maple is what you are looking for,but it also depends on where you live.i live in the SE and there are Sugar Maple trees here,but they are no good for shaftwood.the tree needs to be from the Upper Peninsula or Canada to be right for shafts.

 

[qbilder]

If it's growing in your yard, it might have too many branches & the branches may be too close to the ground. If it has a long, straight trunk with no branches until high up, then it's possibly a good tree.

As for where good shaft maple can come from, it can come from anywhere that sugar maple grows native. I have shaft wood from Kentucky trees, and shaft wood from Vermont trees, and everything in between. I find the very best maple for shafts comes from northern areas of New England, in the mountainy areas where the trees are undergrowth & not the big trees in the forest. When maple is the big trees, they get most of the sunlight & branch off too early, making it difficult to find straight grain areas. When they are undergrowth trees, they get very little light & therefore grow straight up, only branching into a bushy top, leaving a very long and straight trunk.

 

[pdcue]

definately not. but some parts of a couple of them are going to have to be trimmed.....................mike

Trimming would mean limbs, so very unlikely you will get
anything that would be useable for cues.

Dale

 

[qbilder]

There's a good chance with a huge, old tree like that, there will be some considerable curly figure down close to the base running up a few feet to the branch areas. If it was cut in summer or spring then it may be full of sugar lines. If it was cut in dead winter then it should be clean wood. Worse case scenario the wood is no good & ets cut up for firewood or mulch as it was planned anyway. But it couldn't hurt to check some out for figure.

Lots of my figured woods come from scenarios just like this. Trees need trimming or need cut down, and usually because they are growing too big, too old or just too bushy & ugly. Old trees make high chances of good curly figure. Big trees also give good chances of figure. Ugly trees are full of figure.

 

[hangemhigh]

There's a good chance with a huge, old tree like that, there will be some considerable curly figure down close to the base running up a few feet to the branch areas. If it was cut in summer or spring then it may be full of sugar lines. If it was cut in dead winter then it should be clean wood. Worse case scenario the wood is no good & ets cut up for firewood or mulch as it was planned anyway. But it couldn't hurt to check some out for figure.

Lots of my figured woods come from scenarios just like this. Trees need trimming or need cut down, and usually because they are growing too big, too old or just too bushy & ugly. Old trees make high chances of good curly figure. Big trees also give good chances of figure. Ugly trees are full of figure.

Eric, when cutting a harvested section I have read where it is best to quarter saw the trunk. I spoke with a Sawyer who said a Rift cut was best. Your opinion please.

 

[masonh]

not to ineterupt Eric,but for cuemakers Quatersawn is best,but for for the lumber men they get more wood out of the rift sawn.the grain is straightest from Quater sawn.

some say that Quarter sawn wood is 50% more dimensionally stable.

 

[Paul Dayton]

How the log was sawn has nothing at all to do with the quality of the lumber, nothing.

It is impossible for anyone anywhere to tell if a shaft was from a quarter sawn log or a rift sawn log. As dowels they are all equal. boards are a different story.

What quartersawing does is allow you to look at the face of the board and and determine the straightness of the grain instead of looking at the sides or the board for the arrows of latewood.

Quarter sawing a log will produce less lumber that rift or plane sawing.

 

[hangemhigh]

How the log was sawn has nothing at all to do with the quality of the lumber, nothing.

It is impossible for anyone anywhere to tell if a shaft was from a quarter sawn log or a rift sawn log. As dowels they are all equal. boards are a different story.

What quartersawing does is allow you to look at the face of the board and and determine the straightness of the grain instead of looking at the sides or the board for the arrows of latewood.


Quarter sawing a log will produce less lumber that rift or plane sawing.

The Sawyer was undoubtedly calling on his experience to determine the worthiness of the wood.

 

[qbilder]

Rift would be my choice, but it's a whole lot of work & the results are not enough better than quartering to make much difference. As Paul stated, there's not a difference in the wood itsself, as it's still the same wood no matter how it's cut. But by rift or quartering you can increase the number quality shafts, even though the yeild of overall lumber is not as high.

Rift sawing is constantly splitting the wood perpendicular to the grain, so the boards all have a higher grain count than the normal flat sawn. What it does is ensure a maximum number of grain lines are exposed in the face of the board. With the grains all exposed & visible on the board face, it's easy to cut along the grain to make straight grained shafts. With flat sawn boards, it's often times tough to judge how straight the grain is, and therefore making it a crap shoot to getting straight grained shaft squares. If the grain does not run parallel with the flat sawn board, then the shaft squares will have signifigant grain run-off. By rift sawing you can keep track of the grain at all times, ensuring your cuts are inline with it & thus producing the straightest grained shafts possible.

Quarter sawing is just that, quartering the log up & then milling slabs off of each quarter, flipping the quarter back & forth alternating which edge of the quarter you cut a slab. It's not as perfect as rifting, but it's easier & much faster with a little more overall lumber yeild. Good luck finding quarter sawn maple lumber that is cut for grain straightness yeild. It can be found, but is rare. Just dream of rift sawn maple lumber. It doesn't happen unless somebody is specifically cutting it for use as shafts or other specialized applications.

 

[Paul Dayton]

The first maple I ever bought was from a batch that had been rift sawn for an order from Steinway Piano Company. The mill had some left over and was selling it for $1.00 a board foot to get rid of it. I bought 100 feet and planed most of it to 3/4 but some I left rough. A few years later when I started building cues full time I tried the maple. It wasn't the prettiest wood but it made great shafts.

The mill burned down in the late 70's. It was in the southern Adirondacks.

Now I just order a lot of shafts and throw out the ones I don't like and I am paying the equivalent of $20 a board foot. Times change.

 

[cueball1950]

The first maple I ever bought was from a batch that had been rift sawn for an order from Steinway Piano Company. The mill had some left over and was selling it for $1.00 a board foot to get rid of it. I bought 100 feet and planed most of it to 3/4 but some I left rough. A few years later when I started building cues full time I tried the maple. It wasn't the prettiest wood but it made great shafts.

The mill burned down in the late 70's. It was in the southern Adirondacks.

Now I just order a lot of shafts and throw out the ones I don't like and I am paying the equivalent of $20 a board foot. Times change.

Hi paul.....mike peabody here. Long time no hear. I must give you a call sometime to chat. but i do know how busy you are............mike

 

[qbilder]

The first maple I ever bought was from a batch that had been rift sawn for an order from Steinway Piano Company. The mill had some left over and was selling it for $1.00 a board foot to get rid of it. I bought 100 feet and planed most of it to 3/4 but some I left rough. A few years later when I started building cues full time I tried the maple. It wasn't the prettiest wood but it made great shafts.

The mill burned down in the late 70's. It was in the southern Adirondacks.

Now I just order a lot of shafts and throw out the ones I don't like and I am paying the equivalent of $20 a board foot. Times change.

Wow, what a find!!! I'd love to find some good rift sawn maple piled up somewhere. Actually i'm cutting an old growth tree this winter & will be rift sawing myself. I cut a small dogwood in the same hillside, about 4" diameter, and it showed 100 years of growth. I cut a smaller maple, around 2" diameter & it showed 25 years of growth, about the same as the dogwood except after the dogwood reached about 30 years the grain became stupidly tight & slow. That fits well with the life cycle of dogwood, but maple lives longer & gets bigger, so the maple's rediculous tight grain i'm guessing will start at around 60-80 years. If my estimations are correct or even close, compared to the small maple I cut beside the giant one, it'll be a 400 year old tree i'll be milling. It's an old growth forest in the Appalachian mountains, owned by my family for ever. The maples are the undergrowth trees, midgets compared to the giant oaks & ash & sassafrass & gums. The forest is called "Sugartree Hollow", hence the name of cues. I have been working on this project for several years now. I'm pretty excited to find what's inside that tree.