What's the difference between hard curly and soft red leaf curly?

dave sutton

dave sutton

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Title says it. I k ow red Leaf or soft curly is a little softer on bell forests scale. I usually buy hard curly but I liked the golden color of the red leaf so I ordered a few pcs. Can someone compare stability and playability of soft and hard. Ect. Thanks
 
Ive Used both and what I find is the hard curly maple is heavier and more dense. The red maple that I have has a slight redish tint almost a aged look. I core all my soft maples with regular hard maple or other woods depending on the weight I need. The thing the I dont like is that soft maple is what it says soft and it dents more easily even after the finish. I use it only in segmented handle applications and Im not fond of that. The growth patterns and swirls are sometimes very nice looking but I prefer a harder woods for my cues.
 
The western USA maple tends to be redish and a good bit lighter weight than the Eastern hard rock maple. The grain seems to be more open on the Western maple and it often does not turn as smooth. Because of the softer more open grain it fuzzes up more than the Eastern hard maple. Those are the Western Maple's weak points when it comes to using it for structural parts, but for looks, the curl can run really nice and is about as pretty of a curl as you can find. So for points and butt sleeves the really nice Western curl would be hard to beat. If you were to have it impregnated and stabilized with color added it would make one of the prettier curl woods to core for cues.
 
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get it resin impregnated to make it harder? like whats done with the spalted maples and burls. not sure value wise tho. might even change the weight as well.
 
fatsix said:
get it resin impregnated to make it harder? like whats done with the spalted maples and burls. not sure value wise tho. might even change the weight as well.
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It will make it heavier, but the coring will bring it back down some. Plus being denser than the burls, etc. it won't absorb as much resin, therefore won't increase the weight as much. The soft burls are like a sponge, so they absorb a lot more resin. It will also make it less likely to dent, therefore sturdier to use, IMO. There were some pics of cues made with stabilized maple in the gallery somewhere, and they were stunning. As soon as I can finish tinkering with my vacuum chamber I built, (it leaks slightly from the gasket) I plan on doing the soft big leaf maple that I have. I have tried a small burl piece in it using a thin epoxy and it came out ok, now I want to use paraloid B-72 instead, as it will penetrate deeper, faster, and dry harder and won't have a yellowish tinge like epoxies do.
Dave
Dave
 
What is parloid B-72 and where can you get it. I would like to try it on some wood for knife handles also.
Thanks for the info
 
dave sutton said:
Title says it. I k ow red Leaf or soft curly is a little softer on bell forests scale. I usually buy hard curly but I liked the golden color of the red leaf so I ordered a few pcs. Can someone compare stability and playability of soft and hard. Ect. Thanks
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Dave, I have used some of the Curly and Quilted Maple that grows out here in Washington and Oregon States. It seems that the figure in the softer maple is more intense than that in the hard maple, however, the down side to it is that it is lighter and if not treated will dent even after it is finished. It also must be cored in my opinion for stability, and even with coring it should be treated to harden it against dents after finish. When I have used this wood in the past I have used a wood hardener on after the hole is bored and before the core insert is stalled.

Below is the product I have used in the past, and it has worked well for me concerning the issues outlined above.

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Hope this helps
 
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