What is Quilted BIG LEAF MAPLE?

[Rolf]

I seen some really beautful maple call quilted big leaf maple.

http://www.horizonevolutions.com/online-inventory/miscellaneous-sets/quiltedmapleE38.htm

Can it be used for gunstocks?
How does it compare to sugar maple and red maple?

Best regards

Rolf

[Telgan]

Big Leaf Maple is usualy found in Oregon and Washington. Usually not as dense as Sugar Maple.

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

Sure is pretty wood. I don't see why you couldn't make a stock if you can get a piece big enough. Here's a link about the wood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_macrophyllum#Lumber

[Dave B]

I have known several guys to have used it to make their stocks from and they commented on how soft the wood was compared to the red or sugar maple. Most of them are not useable due to the low density of the wood due to fast growth. I have a 40' cotton wood on the property that is only 12yrs old. The longer the tree takes to grow the denser the annul rings the harder the wood. I have seen some trees with annual rings a quarter inch wide. I personally would not use it for a long rifle but it is tempting with some of the beautiful figure it has shown to possess. I would imagine that if this tree were to be in a less damp environment if would produce a denser grain and be more suitable for making a long rifle. I know most of it is used for guitar backs, furniture and veneer.

[Ron Scott]

One of my students tried a piece on a longrifle several years ago.  As Dave stated, it is soft, soft, soft. It proved to be splintery while inletting. Wouldn't hold carving details. My student reported that the grain surface kept raising again and again prior to getting a sealer on the stock.

[Rolf]

Thank you  for the answers. I think I'll stick to sugar maple or good quality red maple.

Best regards
Rolf

[Kermit]

In defense: Big leaf maple (western maple) varies a lot. Some of it grows in the rainforest along the Washington coast, some of it in drier climes to the south and the east. You have to know where it came from, or better yet, see/handle it. I've used it for furniture a lot, but selectively. Color and figure can be amazing.

Years back I shot with Lauren "Doc" Brown, and saw many of the rifles he built. He had a connection with a small sawmill where the sawyer knew his wood, and saved good stuff for Doc. It can be a good stock wood when chosen carefully. Some of has amazingly tight curl to rival the best hard maple I've seen.

I wouldn't write it all off. I've seen/used BLM that was harder, heavier, denser than cherry or black walnut. At 12% moisture content, cherry's specific gravity is .50, walnut is .55, and BLM is .54.

I've got a fairly large entertainment center on commission right now that will be in BLM, and I'm looking forward to it. BUT, I will go to the supplier and select the wood myself. I've got quilted BLM and burl BLM ratholed for two-piece stocks, maybe for shotguns or underhammers in the future. It's easier to find shorter stock wood like this than it is to find fullstock or even halfstock blanks.

[Dphariss]

If it was grown on the west cost I would not give anymore for it than I would the same board footage of pine.
Why even bother if I can get eastern hard or even red Maple?
I detest "Oregon" maple.  I have described it, after stocking a rifle at a place I used to work, as "curly pine".

Dan

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I have stocked dozens of rifles both full stocked and half stocked with Western Maple that was cut, milled, and sold through Bow River hardwoods, Chilliwack, British Columbia.  It is outstanding stock wood:  stable, dense and hard, holds carving perfectly, and outstandingly beautiful.  I have stocked longrifles with eastern sugar maple that was none of these.  But I have also seen some western maple that wasn't fit to make into lawn furniture.
Currently, I've just finished the incised carving on my A. Verner attempt in a piece of lovely western maple, all without a hitch.  I'll take a few shots and post them.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Here's a few images to show how good western maple carves, and finishes.  This incised carving is fresh cut with a tiny Dem Bart 60 degree parting tool, and four gouges.  I have yet to highlight it and clean up the rough ends.  I'm quite happy with the outcome.

The stained pieces are all from the chunk I cut away to start shaping the cheek piece.  They are sanded and scraped to 320 grit, and stained with various liquids except for the toe piece which is unstained.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Here's a few more rifles and pistols that have come from my bench, all stocked in good BC Western Maple.  I for one will not discard the stuff out of hand.  Your fingernail will tell you a lot about the wood's suitability.

[Blacksmoke]

Most of my  early guns were stocked with Western Big leaf maple.  Then I discovered HARD Eastern maple , both red and sugar maple.     I would never go back to using Western maple because it grows to quickly and thus it is not as dense as the Eastern.   If you can dig your fingernail into a piece of maple - it is too soft!   It resists carving and inlaying and general gunmaking.  It is as Ron described a @#$%^&@##$ to work with!  Yes - it looks very appealing but as my old Dad used to say:  "All is not gold that glitters" !       Hugh Toenjes

[Dphariss]

I have stocked dozens of rifles both full stocked and half stocked with Western Maple that was cut, milled, and sold through Bow River hardwoods, Chilliwack, British Columbia.  It is outstanding stock wood:  stable, dense and hard, holds carving perfectly, and outstandingly beautiful.  I have stocked longrifles with eastern sugar maple that was none of these.  But I have also seen some western maple that wasn't fit to make into lawn furniture.
Currently, I've just finished the incised carving on my A. Verner attempt in a piece of lovely western maple, all without a hitch.  I'll take a few shots and post them.

Don't buy any from south of the border. I can only assume that the shorter growing season farther north makes a difference.
The stuff I have used is kinda like pine with curl.

Dan

[MarkEngraver]

Wow, My experience with "Quilted' maple isn't quite as negative as some have stated.
But, then again the guns weren't long rifles that I stocked. One was an 1885 Low Wall Winchester and the other was an 1886 Winchester, so I wasn't doing any carving or the like, just simple two piece stocks.
Yes, the wood was "softer" relatively speaking, but not like a pine or such. The grain is crazy all over the place that's for sure but I don't think it was totally unworkable.
If you did carve it, I'm not sure it would show up very well anyway as it would get lost in the figure of the wood. Too much for the eye to take in.
I'll tell you one thing, those stocks were spectacular !

Mark

[Rolf]

Thank you for the pictures Taylor. Beautiful guns!!! It sounds all maple speices vary alot in hardness and that you have to judge each blank indivually.  Did you get the blank for the A.Verner from Bow River?

I checked out the Bow River web site. The longest stock blank 58 " long  and not impressiv figurwise. It looks like he cuts up his best stuff for musical instruments.

Best regards
Rolf

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

The last wood I bought from them - twenty years ago, was two planks about fifteen feet long and 20" across x 3" thick.  Careful layout and some patience with my bandsaw, and I cut out a lot of rifle stocks.  Yes, the Verner is one of those.  It is heartwood - quite pink - and carves like superlative English walnut.  I must concede that some western maple is pretty, but useless for gunstocks.  It can be very soft, and rubbery, and practically impossible to work.
The wood I bought in the past from Bow River was cut locally, I believe, from maples that had a hard life, trying to grow on the sides of the coastal mountains, where, like Dan points out, the growing season is shorter than it is in Oregon and California - even Washington.  If you order wood from Bow River, you may have to special order big slabs like the ones I bought.  Otherwise, they cut it up for other artisans who are more numerous and pay top dollar for the little pieces.
My point was that not all western broad leaf maple is of poor quality.

[Leatherbelly]

 Hey Taylor,
   Nice to see a couple of my "old" guns in your pictures. I kinda miss the old Verner and the N.Hawke pistol.
  I think it must be the colder climate and shorter growing seasons that make the difference in this type of maple. I had one in my yard years ago in Victoria that was six feet in diameter and no limbs for 20 feet up the trunk. It had to be 80 feet tall, with the main limbs  two and a half feet thick. It shaded my yard for half the day in the summer time.