Acer macrophyllum

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The blocks in the photos are Acer macrophyllum, aka Oregon Maple or Big Leaf Maple. But not your everyday Maple.
These are part of this week's batch of wood that just came back from getting stabilized by K&G.
They will go into the web store on Friday. I really like these. Hopefully some of you will too.

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If you have any comments, please feel free to post them.
I think this is some beautiful wood.
But, like many things, what makes a beautiful piece of handle material is subjective.
I can feel it is the prettiest thing I have ever seen, while you might think it's butt ugly.
...and we'd both be right, or wrong.

It doesn't really matter but I would still like to hear what you think.
Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings. I have thick skin under this layer of sawdust.
 
Love the look of these Mark, those tight 3D curies really do it for me. Looking forward to seeing these in your store.
 
I am amazed by several of these blocks. Do you have any unstabilized curly maple of this quality? I would need to stain it darker, and I am pretty sure you can't stain stabilized wood. By the way, that block of stabilized curly koa you sold me last week. The one that you cut into extra thick slabs for me.That is one of the most beautiful pieces of wood I've ever seen. I was very hesitant to pay that much for wood, any wood, but it was worth every penny. Incredible stuff!
 
RI_Shooter said:
Do you have any unstabilized curly maple of this quality? I would need to stain it darker, and I am pretty sure you can't stain stabilized wood.
Click to expand...

A few of the guys here have done well using Fiebings Oil Base leather dye to stain the stabilized blocks.
If that is not something you want to try, send me an email and I will find you a good unstabilized block.

BTW: Thank you for the kind words. I am glad you liked the Koa.
 
Burl Source said:
If you have any comments, please feel free to post them.
I think this is some beautiful wood.
But, like many things, what makes a beautiful piece of handle material is subjective.
I can feel it is the prettiest thing I have ever seen, while you might think it's butt ugly.
...and we'd both be right, or wrong.

It doesn't really matter but I would still like to hear what you think.
Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings. I have thick skin under this layer of sawdust.
Click to expand...

I love your woods, Mark, but when I want to put a maple handle on a knife I will always choose sugar maple over big leaf maple. I'll freely admit that I may have a bit of a home bias, but in my opinion the best maple in the world grows right here in my backyard in Vermont. It has gorgeous figure, from fiddleback to quilted to birdseye, and is very hard and stable even in its natural state. It doesn't need to be stabilized and takes a variety of stains and finishes extremely well. Oregon big leaf maple, on the other hand, is a soft maple - not nearly as strong as our Acer Saccharum (better known around here as sugar maple, hard maple, or rock maple), and when stabilized the soft maple doesn't respond well to stains or oil based finishes. Vermont curly rock maple is also fairly inexpensive. I buy it by the board foot and even when accounting for a lot of waste when selecting the best sections for handle blocks I still probably spend only a couple bucks per block.

Give me your shipping address and I'll put a few samples in a box for you to play with. I think you'll like it.
 
Mark, as plain as some folks may find it, I think it's some of the nicest material going.
I love its consistency and predictability.
I also want to voice my support of you always using K and G.
I can't say I've tried them all, because I don't know who they "all" are, but I've tried a bunch of 'em.
K and G is simply the best out there.
And I applaud your repeated use of the 'best'. :thumbup:
 
Karl B. Andersen said:
Mark, as plain as some folks may find it, I think it's some of the nicest material going.
I love its consistency and predictability.
I also want to voice my support of you always using K and G.
I can't say I've tried them all, because I don't know who they "all" are, but I've tried a bunch of 'em.
K and G is simply the best out there.
And I applaud your repeated use of the 'best'. :thumbup:
Click to expand...

I just use them because they send me home made candy at Christmas.
Just teasing.
If you remember I did my own stabilizing for a couple years.
When I would see K&G at the shows they suggested I give them a try.
Said they might be able to do a bit better and save me a few bucks.
After the first batch I have used them exclusively for all my stabilizing.
Now I can focus all my time on finding cool wood and making sawdust.
 
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