Sapwood Vs. heartwood on plank cut blanks

[verbrugen]

Perhaps this question has been raised before related to quartersawn versus plank cut stock blanks with curly/tiger maple but here I go.  I have access to a fair amount of plank cut sugar maple that is highly figured and have already laid out a couple of blanks and even had one blank laid out with barrel inlet, ramrod channel / hole drilled, and buttstock area shaped.  With the plank sawn blanks I end up with a noticeable difference in wood (heart vs. sap) in the butt area of the stock ie.  on the cheekpiece side I have nicely figured sap, but on the patchbox side the heartwood is a darker shade.  My question is when stained with AF.  or other commercial stains will the difference between the heartwood and sapwood be all that noticeable.  One obvious thing that will help is that  the patchbox will cover a fair amount of this area.

Thanks
Jeff

[woodburner]

Jeff, usually where ever sap wood occurs, there will be a differencein
color.  Staining would probably still result in a color change. Sap wood
can be used in wood turnings for a visual effect.  The color difference will
lessen over time and uv exposure, but my experience says stay away
from sap wood unless you want an effect.  Final say would be your call
after trying a dry piece. Good luck, sounds like you have some fine wood.
Tim

[Jim Kibler]

In my experience, maple heartwood is often not suitable for a gunstock.  Sometimes it can be hard, abrasive and prone to cracks at the heart / sapwood interface.  I have had some cases where the heartwood was more tolerable in that it was a lighter shade, not so hard, abrasive etc.  Guess it just depends.  In the cases where heartwood is tolerable, ferric nitrate stain seems to even things out well.  I must say that when I've used stocks with a heartwood, it has been a small amout, usually at the tang area or toe.  Not a large percentage of the stock.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Most of the blank stocks that are sold by vendors are all sapwood.  Maple is what is sometimes called a "white wood" tree, in that almost all of the wood is sapwood, and only the core is heart wood.  In the few stocks that I have made where both are present, the heartwood difference almost disappears upon staining.  Same goes for mineral deposits and inclusions.  Good stockwood don't grow on trees, eh!

[verbrugen]

No kidding;  The majority of the best figure on plank cut stuff I have seen all has the same heartwood  issue unless the boards are extremely wide.  Here are a couple of photos of the stock.

[Jim Kibler]

Based on your description and photos, the tree your stock blank came from probably wasn't too big.  This is why you are fighting the heartwood, while trying to get a stock blank out of the wood.  Pertaining to the pre-shaped blank shown, I would suggest using it.  After you get it shaped down, put a box on it, and stain it the issues will likely not be that apparent.  This bit of heartwood doesn't seem to be some of the nasty stuff I've encountered in the past.

[rich pierce]

Acer, where the heck are you?  I know you've made and used blanks with heartwood from sugar maple trees you sawed up.  I've got one of the blanks in my basement.  The one I have seems quite workable but I know what Jim means about raspy-feeling heartwood on some pieces.  When it's gritty or raspy-feeling it seems to not throw smooth curls but to flake off when worked with a sharp plane or spokeshave.

[verbrugen]

With warm weather here in the northeast I just spent a couple hours in the shop after work cleaning  up the tool marks left by the spindle carving machine and refining the shape of things on this stock.  I did not notice any difference when running a small Kunz hand plane or #49 wood rasp over the Heartwood.  What I did note that at the interface between heart & sap old Mr. worm or one of his buddies seems to have enjoyed hanging out and left some small pin holes.  Maybe it is me but the other thing I noticed is that the cell or grain structure across the curl (hard soft) is not as pronounced with the heartwood.  My only concern is if this area is going to stain differently or react strange with AF.  and how to deal with getting this to blend with the rest of the stock.  I guess only time will tell.

Jeff

[Acer Saccharum]

Hello? I was napping.

It may depend on the tree; I can't say, as most of my experience is from sapwood stocks only. That is, until recently. I have some wood that has sap and heart, with the heart being as hard as the sap. I have one gun under the knife with some heartwood in it. Not a problem for working it.

But it will show when stained as dark patches. If this does not bother you, then have at it. It does not bother me, so I use it.

Tom

[James]

Most of the blank stocks that are sold by vendors are all sapwood.  Maple is what is sometimes called a "white wood" tree, in that almost all of the wood is sapwood, and only the core is heart wood.  In the few stocks that I have made where both are present, the heartwood difference almost disappears upon staining.  Same goes for mineral deposits and inclusions.  Good stockwood don't grow on trees, eh!

In addition, each tree has a different amount of heart-wood. I have felled trees 18" DBH that were brown nearly through and through. One that I cut Tuesday is 27" DBH and the brown-heart is only about 4". Maple brings the best price when it has little of the brown wood heart.