# What kind of Maple?



## Salt4wa (Oct 2, 2015)

This is a block of maple I cut from the crotch of a tree that had been laying on the ground for about 6 or 7 years. There were some carpenter ants in it, but most of it was very hard yet. This was from a city lot. It was the top of the trunk where numerous branches grow out. Nobody wanted to try to make it into firewood (impossible to split) so it laid around until I came around. The chunk was about 4 feet by 3 feet. I've turned a few bowl out of it (they sold quickly) and made a number of pens out of the scraps.

The question: what kind of wood should I call this? Maple burl, ambrosia maple, ??? There was almost no spalt in this piece. Most of it is very hard and close grained.

Reactions: Like 1


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## phinds (Oct 2, 2015)

This does not look even remotely like ambrosia maple.

Looks to me like it's spalted, but the spalt is not the better black-line spalt you often get in maple but rather just a lot of white rot. White rot very often does not degrade the hardness of the wood, it's just a fungus that destroys the pigments. I was sure for a long time that this was not "spalting" but I was set straight by "Dr. Spalt" who I think has a membership here but I have not seen her post in ages and can't remember her user name. Her name/title is Dr. Sara Robinson, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto. The comment about the solidity of white rot is mine (based on my experience) not hers, but I assume she would agree w/ me.


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## Mike1950 (Oct 2, 2015)

phinds said:


> This does not look even remotely like ambrosia maple.
> 
> Looks to me like it's spalted, but the spalt is not the better black-line spalt you often get in maple but rather just a lot of white rot. White rot very often does not degrade the hardness of the wood, it's just a fungus that destroys the pigments. I was sure for a long time that this was not "spalting" but I was set straight by "Dr. Spalt" who I think has a membership here but I have not seen her post in ages and can't remember her user name. Her name/title is Dr. Sara Robinson, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto. The comment about the solidity of white rot is mine (based on my experience) not hers, but I assume she would agree w/ me.



I thought she was at U Of Oregon??? I would be definitive when they ask what Kind of wood and say Maple.  Nice Maple.


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## phinds (Oct 2, 2015)

Perhaps she's moved. My contact info could well be out of date.

I couldn't even tell for sure that it is maple  (but I assume Loren has that right). Based on the pic all I can say is that it looks like wood with white rot.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## norman vandyke (Oct 2, 2015)

Are you sure it's maple? That coloring looks a lot like some of the white rot spalted apple I've seen.


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## phinds (Oct 2, 2015)

norman vandyke said:


> Are you sure it's maple? That coloring looks a lot like some of the white rot spalted apple I've seen.


That's a good point Norm. I've never seen maple with that much white rot but I've seen a fair amount of it in apple.


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## Mr. Peet (Oct 3, 2015)

I THOUGHT IT WAS apple until I read it was maple. Make something out of it, then show us to comment. If it turns out to be maple, maple it is. If it has a fair amount of figure, its "maple" with figure. If it is all figure, then "figured maple". Being modest sells better than pushing the envelope. Word of mouth from those window showing is also more favorable. Good luck...


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