Tools to work curly maple

[Clinton B Chase]

I am new to figured woods. What would folks suggest for a table saw blade that would make very clean rips/cuts on curly maple? I'd like a combo blade.

Cheers,
Clint Chase

[ssor]

Very sharp tools, scrapers won't tear the grain as badly as planes will.

[Hughman]

Hi Clint,
I'm not sure a combo blade will give you what you want, unless by accident. I'm assuming this cut to be a final dimension cut.

Any complicated grain will need a sharp blade, and a promising piece of wood ought to be cut with the tooth configuration designed for the task. For finishing, a well tuned plane, or a scraper will bring out the detail of the piece. Throw away the sandpaper, please! :D

[Hughman]

cross posted again! :D

[Mrleft8]

As usuall, I tend to be contrary.... FIRST OFF..... How thick is this curly maple? Are we talking 4/4, or 12/4? Makes a huge difference. 4/4 I'd use any blade you use on any other wood.... 12/4 I'd use a bandsaw.

[Bob Smalser]

I grow and mill plenty of Bigleaf Maple.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/3955069/50554493.jpg

If you're not ripping thousands of bf of it, "sharp" is usually more important than type of blade. Same with jointer and planer, except both remain high-risk for tearout, expecially the 2-blade planers. If you have to use a power planer, take a light cut using fresh blades and dampen the board surface first. 3-blade jointers work only slightly better, just nip both board ends first.

Card scrapers, hand planes, belt and thickness sanders can finish board edges and faces without chipping, and mastering the belt sander is often the best option for home shops. You can do wonders with a common, hand-held belt sander on difficult woods, but you have to master it's use just like you do a smoothing plane.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/2594265/154291616.jpg

Also important is picking stains and finishes that hide any chipping, but that's another subject.

[Tom Lathrop]

Never have much luck with power planes on curly maple. Here is a coffee table smoothed with both a Kunz and hand scraper. Some of those curls from the Kunz are several feet long. The figure is much better than the photo shows.

http://www.bluejacketboats.com/coffee%20table%206.jpg

And this is a small music box done in the same maner.

http://www.bluejacketboats.com/music%20box%205xx.jpg

I use a Freud LU84 combination blade for most all sawing. Works too well to bother with changing blades very often. Main thing is to keep it or any blade sharp and clean.

[Bob Smalser]

Nice plane, Bob. What is it.

One I modified specifically to finish figured maple. Works about as good as a light touch with the belt sander. ;)

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/3955069/50554506.jpg

http://www.woodenboatvb.com/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?t=10456

http://www.woodenboatvb.com/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?t=425

[Ron Williamson]

I made a wooden wedge that I screw to my jointer fence,so that I can run curly stuff at an angle.This way, the knives tend not to wedge under the short grain and cause it to tear out.
It's easier if you have a wide jointer.
I've read that a back bevel on planer knives will tend to cause less tear out as well,but I've never tried it for real.It's the same idea as a steep angled hand plane.
I have carefully run an oilstone over the front edge of a fresh knife to knock off the very sharp edge and give it a tiny(miniscule,even)back bevel.
This seems to work,but it's hard to compare.A light "clean up" pass through the planer makes it thinner,but not much better.
A big sander (stroke, thickness or belt)works pretty well too, but you need to make sure to get all of the scratches out.
I like a well tuned hook-type paint scraper(1 1/2" wide) for this.
R

[ishmael]

Pretty stock in the pics.

The last time I worked much curly stock, mostly cherry, I cheated. The shop had access to a wide platform sander which we used for curly faces.

Really sharp and properly set up a hand planes will work it. Scrapers for finishing.

Back to the question. I never had much luck with power planing tools with such stock, but sawing it shouldn't be a problem. If you must run it over a jointer, sharp, fresh knives, and slow. The idea of angling it sounds good too.

No specific recommendations, but a decent combination blade should do fine. No me gusta la problema.

[garyspear]

I have used a lot of curly maple in my guitar necks. I use a freud thin kerf "planer blade". you have to be very sure that the parallelism is set correctly. In fact if this is set correctly almost any "sharp" combo blade will make the cut.

Sorry but the finishing needs a lot more care than other woods. not that it is much harder, you must be more deliberate. also the finish you use is also critical. I use nitrocelulose laquer or a ton of tung oil. depending what it will be used for.

[Rob Stokes, N. Vancouver]

My blade of choice is a Forrest WoodWorker II (40 tooth combo). They're pricey, but boy, do they do a good job. I routinely come off the saw straight to glue-up - no jointer needed after the last cut.

However - they're not a good blade for ripping stock thicker than 4/4 in any quantity so if you're dealing with thicker woods, you may want to simply use a dedicated rip blade and finish the resulting edge with a jointer or hand tools.

Rob

[Mrleft8]

Dealing with curly black walnut today (Actually, being dealt with by curly black walnut today...)I have extra info. Cabinet scraper, honed to a razor edge, 320 grit sandpaper on a hard (wood) block.
Of course just as I was getting to where I wanted to be, I decided it was time to cut the rabbet... Blew the whole bookmatched panel to smithereens with one misguided idea.... Oh well... The project doesn't need to be finished until last weekend anyway....

[Nicholas Carey]

One trick to [cross-]cutting on the table saw without tearout or chipping on the bottom is to make the first cut close to the line and then sneak up on the cut line, removing a half-kerf or less to get to the line. This way, you're not removing enough material on the final cut(s) to cause tearout.

Zero-clearance inserts help, too, custom-fit to the blade in use.

As far as table saw blades, go, Forrest blades (http://www.forrestsawblades.com/online_catalog.htm) are pretty amazing, though some may poo-poo them.

To prevent tearout, especially on plywood, some people center a strip of blue masking tape on cut line on the bottom of the workpiece and burnish it down. This helps prevent tearout, too.

Another way to reduce tearout: if your saw doesn't have a separate scoring blade -- something it almost certainly lacks -- and if you trust your fence and saw setup, you can set the blade to make a very shallow scoring cut -- 1/16 of an inch or so and make an initial pass to score the bottom. Then raise the blade to full height and finish the cut with another pass.

[Though, if you don't trust your fence and saw setup, you've got some tuning to do on the machinery before you'll get really good results with anything, regardless of blade or wood.]

Raising the blade to its full height helps, too, IMHO. This increases the entrance/exit angles of the blade WRT the workpiece, making the blade more nearly perpindicular to the workpiece -- the equivalent of switching from a common pitch (45 deg cut angle) to a York pitch (50 deg cut angle) hand plane, or switching to a scraper (80+ deg cut angle) to reduce tearout whilst planing.

[Clinton B Chase]

I am making a jewelry box out of curly maple and walnut. Shhhhh...Xmas present for the Admiral. I planned on doing most everything on the table saw so tx for the ideas...I will try a brand new 50 tooth Freud combo blade and see how it goes on some test cuts. I am pretty decent with a belt sander somay try doing that to get me 3/4" stock down to 5/8". I have scrapers but used them little. Hugh, do you dislike sandpaper or just not recommend it on curly maple? I'll keep folks posted. Tx.

Cheers,
Clint
a.k.a. Santa's elf: j. box for wife; train table for kid; dust and shavings for me!

[Mrleft8]

You're going to BELT SAND an eighth of an inch off of curly Maple? Good luck dude! And tell me how many belts and dusk masks you went through before you had to quit because your shoulder blades fell off your back.
Find a thickness planer or a resaw capable bandsaw.

[Hughman]

Hugh, do you dislike sandpaper or just not recommend it on curly maple?


I hate sanding. I've learned to sharpen tools as a result.

Once you've sanded a surface, you gotta spend a lot of time repairing the damage before it will take a decent finish.

[Clinton B Chase]

Find a thickness planer or a resaw capable bandsaw.[/QUOTE]

My work planer will tear the grain and a bandsaw blade is nearly 1/8"...that will be hard to resaw away cleanly. I'll let ya know how the belt sander worked after tomorrow! :)

Cheers,
Clint