First Quilted Maple Piece and Questions for Experts

[HomerLee]

I'm just finishing up my first project with the stash of quilted maple I acquired - a mirror frame LOML saw in an old catalog. I used curly maple for frame, quilted maple for top:



Some questions:

We usually prefer darker tones such as cherry but I'm wondering if lighter tones are better for highly figured wood? I'm thinking of building a chest of drawers with drawer fronts of curly maple, light toned, and the carcass and top of darker tone.

It seems a waste to use quilted maple for the full thickness of drawers so my thinking is I will re-saw down to about 1/4" thick and laminate to a substrate of some sort. Since the practice to avoid cracks is to not assemble cross grain, does quilted maple have a grain direction or does it expand and contract both ways? And what kind of glue should be used?

For those interested I tried to plane a piece of the quilted maple in my DeWalt 13" on low speed and tear-out was bad. A Veritas BU jack plane with toothed blade worked great. I haven't quite got the hang of tuning my Veritas BU Smoother but my WoodRiver 4 1/2 smoother worked flawlessly (zero tear out) with a 10 degree back bevel on the iron and close set chip breaker. Can a BU plane with no chip breaker work as flawlessly as a bevel down plane?

[JR1]

Great frame

I've done some with birds eye and tiger maple and like the more natural lighter coloring. But, finishing is very much a matter of personal aesthetics. I like a 1# cut coat of Garnet shellac followed by a waterborne finish. One of the nicest jobs I have seen was a friend who applied a 1# cut coat of Thai seed followed by sanding back (see


http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/p...the-maple/

for the technique) followed by a couple coats of Garnnet shellac and then a WB clear topcoat.

[Steve Friedman]

Homer,

That's really nice. Love the figure. I also like darker woods and really appreciate that color on the maple. I tend to avoid maple because I think it's too light, but that's really stunning.

Steve

[Guest]

Homer, that's a stunning mirror frame! I like the dark stain. To me, the main attraction of highly figured maple is the chatoyance. I love the way the light plays over the grain, revealing its depth. It has kind of a kaleidoscope affect as you move around it and the light strikes it from different angles. How does the dark stain affect the quilted maole's chatoyance?

[Rob Young]

Good lookin' stuff.

So essentially, you plan to veneer the drawer fronts, yes? Then just make it a 1/8" or 1/10" veneer and be done with it. The drawer front stock would be 3/4", half-blind dados into the sides, no need to veneer inside as the joinery keeps it flat. And add a top-strip or *****-bead of the quilted/curly stuff so that you don't see the poplar/pine/plain maple drawer front stock.

For reference, look how Steve Latta did these drawers: http://www.pbs.org/video/2178688492/

[HomerLee]

JR1,

That's interesting! I had seen the video by the wood whisperer and got an idea from it. As I recall he put dye in sanding sealer and then after it dried he sanded the piece which left the color in the end grain. I didn't measure anything, just put some sanding sealer in a jar and squirted light brown Trans Tint dye in and applied that without sanding anything afterward. Then the color was changed a bit by wiping on a coat of glaze made with artists oil paint (burnt umber with about 1/4 sienna) mixed with Liquin. LOML and I like the glaze over the sealer because it can be taken off easily with a rag and mineral spirits if you do not like the color and you can adjust the glaze color with more oil paint and try again. Learned of this many years ago from Popular Woodworking. With the Liguin the oil paint dries in a few hours. Over the top is wipe on poly.

[HomerLee]

Hank,

The chatoyance seems to be unaffected. I described how I stained it in my previous post replying to JR1. Thanks for the compliment!

[HomerLee]

Rob,

Thanks for the suggestion. I think I would plane smooth by hand and then resaw and run the sawn side through my Performax to get a surface good for glue. I feel much more comfortable planning smooth the side that shows than the belt sander which I haven't mastered. Things go well with it then suddenly I get a burned place. Guess I should learn to use it but machines aren't much fun. I do like the idea of capping the edges with ***** bead; I have used it a lot. Did the face frame on our cabinets that way.

[Anji12305]

1/8 - 1/4" overlay on a through dovetail drawer front will emulate a half blind dovetail with a good deal less work.

I would use Hide Glue for this, to get the a good bond that should last.
Violin makers use the stuff and nearly all their joints are constantly moving.

[Steve N]

Looks like flames on top.