curly or quilted maple

[marekz]

which do you prefer curly maple or quilted maple. lets say both are premium grade.--thanks -marekz

 

[Phillip Dobson]

In knife handles, I'd take curly. Highly-sculpted furniture, quilted.

A good tight curl pattern fits better on a small knife. Quilt is better suited toward larger pieces.

 

[Los Angeles]

I've seen pieces where either word would fit.

 

[C.Edmondson]

As long as its hard stuff it dosent matter to me. I have some curly maple that looks amazing but its softer, I think curly maple stained is amazing

 

[Burl Source]

In knife handles, I'd take curly. Highly-sculpted furniture, quilted.

A good tight curl pattern fits better on a small knife. Quilt is better suited toward larger pieces.

I agree with Phillip. The larger bubble like figure can get lost on a knife handle. Quilted maple is cut flat sawn to mirror the bulges that form on the log. That will display true quilted figure. If the same piece is cut quarter or rift sawn it turns into curly figure of varying thickness depending on the angle to the grain.
You can get curly figure from a quilted piece, but you can't get quilt from a true curly piece which will show ridges on the outside of the log. I hope I am making sense here. An example would be #749 Curly maple you just purchased. It was a piece of quilted maple I cut rift sawn to tighten up the figure.

 

[WadeH]

Quilted over curly any day of the week.

 

[GHEzell]

As long as its hard stuff it dosent matter to me. I have some curly maple that looks amazing but its softer, I think curly maple stained is amazing

Good point... I do not believe the softer maples are as good for handles, must be rock (sugar) maple for me to use it...