Walnut vs Curly Maple for Inlay Work.

[DanF]

Prior to today, I had only used curly (soft), Maple for silver inlay. I knew you could use Walnut, but had not tried it.
Well, after a test run today, I may never use the maple again. I've been using a medium soft .014x.055 fine silver flat 'wire' and based on today's trial, it is much easier to chase the wire into the Walnut as opposed to the maple, and it is easier to blend two adjoining joints and make that joint 'invisible'.
So I guess I'm asking if others have had this experience or is the medium soft wire too hard for the much softer maple?
Thanks,

 

[Hengelo_77]

No experience here but I have that pretty high on my wish list
Do you have photo's of that trial run inlay project?

 

[DanF]

Hengelo_77
Only the maple, there a pic of that in the "what's going on in your shop thread". The soft maple deforms rather easily which is why I think the medium wire needs to be a bit softer, but that is just speculation on my part right now ( the Masters at inlay used soft maple rather successfully). I'll post a pic of Walnut in a week or two, as things slow down a bit.

 

[jdm61]

The one "pro" that I have heard about curly maple is that you can "cut" across he grain without it messing up/tearing out.

 

[Richard338]

Looking forward to the pic. I've been tempted, but resisting getting into this and adding one more thing to mess up...

 

[DanF]

jdm61 , I think curly maple also seems to grip a bit better.
@Richard 338, yeah, like we need, "one more thing", to deal with. . It is fun though.