old growth maple heart wood
- Thread starter desi2960
- Start date
Chuck, Pm me the cost and any photos if you have some. How straight is the grain. Chris.
The heart of the maple tree is pretty small compared to other woods that we call heart woods. So you very often get a shaft that has a major color change from dark red to almost white. Another issue is the small circular grain. If you made one shaft exactly in the middle of the heart the grain would go around instead across the shaft. This might be good for that one shaft. But then the grain would really be weird right next to it on either side of dead middle. The only wood that I really like the absolute dead middle of the heart is birdseye maple. Because that is the only piece that will have true eyes on all four sides and if you can deal with the dark color it looks nice. My guess is unless these boards are very small like maybe the size of a 2 x 4, they are not all heart wood. But if it is really old it may be the heart scraps left over. Some people think the heartwood of maple is anything inside that outside bark area, but the heart is the dark center of the maple. I have not played with them so I may be wrong on playability, but on looks I think I am right.
Kers who?:thumbup:masonh said:
Most dark maple wood is not heartwood, just dark maple. The heartwood of a maple tree degrades badly in a kiln and is usually so inconsistently colored as to be very distracting to the eye. Some of it plays fine, some doesn't.
The white shafts used today are carefully selected sapwood from the outermost portions of the log and are vacuum kiln dried. I have always liked the darker shaft wood better for it's playing characteristics, and I am certain that this is the wood the furniture factory had. They would have rejected any heartwood offhand.
The white shafts used today are carefully selected sapwood from the outermost portions of the log and are vacuum kiln dried. I have always liked the darker shaft wood better for it's playing characteristics, and I am certain that this is the wood the furniture factory had. They would have rejected any heartwood offhand.
more info
the guy i bought the wood from is a metal dealer, he is scraping the metal in this 1850's sawmill-furniture factory, he was told about the age by the owners of the sawmill. he may be wrong about the sapwood - heartwood part and i will not know until the wood gets here. the wood will be shipped in the next couple days. as soon as i have my hands on it i will take photos , get some weights, growth ring count, etc, etc. and thank everyone for the info on sapwood- heartwood. chuck
the guy i bought the wood from is a metal dealer, he is scraping the metal in this 1850's sawmill-furniture factory, he was told about the age by the owners of the sawmill. he may be wrong about the sapwood - heartwood part and i will not know until the wood gets here. the wood will be shipped in the next couple days. as soon as i have my hands on it i will take photos , get some weights, growth ring count, etc, etc. and thank everyone for the info on sapwood- heartwood. chuck
dave sutton
Banned
masonh said:
shats??? lol
i personally like the darker shafts. they play better IMO but ppl dont like to see dark or small changes in color. they want clean white. i dont get it but ok
dave sutton said:
what, are you the same guy in one of my moose antler threads that said only the whitest would do???? Just jabbing you dave, by the way, if you want some, I just cut into an antler that is like ivory.
Why not experiment, I want to try some, just like I want to try the Salvaged wood, the bowling alley planks, I even try rubbing viagra on my shaft to get it stiffer
