The Forestry Forum

Here are a couple of photos of some maple I saw this past week for a customer.  We were both surprised at what we found inside the log.   Sawed a mix of 4/4, 5/4, 8/4 for him. Ended with about 700 bf of the stuff.

DR, that looks like AMBROSIA MAPLE.  Are there little holes in one end of each stain??

Almost all the soft maple in my neck of the woods has the worm holes like that.  Soft maple is priced whad, (worm hole all defect) for maple with little or no holes, or whnd  (worm hole no defect) for wormy maple.  Whad sells considerably higher than whnd.  Far as I know, the holes do no harm, just an appearance thing.

Looks cool to me. I suppose the staining could be spault in nature, I haven't seen any Ambrosia up close.

REID

Captain....  I don't remember any little holes in the stain marks at all.  The marks appeared solid, mostly gray in color and slightly denser or drier than the rest of the board.

Nope, not spalted. Absolutely ambrosia, or as we call it around here, "wormy" soft maple.  We see a lot of it.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/SD_Ambrosia.jpg)

These beetles are 1/8 to 1/4 inches long. This particular species infests softwoods and work under the bark. Ambrosia tunnel into hardwood and make holes, which are filled by fungi that they eat. They both look similar. ;D

DR_Buck, look at your pictures , or better yet at a board.  I can see the two little holes, spaced about 1/16 to 1/8 inch apart in your photos.  Like Jeff says,  wormy soft maple without a doubt. 

Dr,

Before that junk gets thrown on the burn pile,  do a search on that ambrosia stuff.  Someone on the forum  made some beautiful (and valuable) furniture out of it.  Maybe someone can find the old post.

Noble, I did a search on google yesterday and found this:

http://www.blueridgewoodworkers.com/ambrosia_maple_dining_set.html

I pulled this outta the slabs yesterday........
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10677/wormy%20gum.jpg)

I agree with the others - definitely ambrosia maple.  Here's a picture of a chisel case I made with some ambrosia maple resawn and bookmatched for the front.  Cool looking wood, but you have to be careful with how you use it.  It can be overwhelming.  That dining set is a bit busy for my eyes.  Cool, but busy.

(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/archives/wood2/Chisel%20box2.jpg)

I have some maple like this with the worm holes.

I am a bit confused by the posts.  Does the worm holes bring more $$$$$$ or less$$?


I am getting ready to let my customers know what I have in inventory, so any information now is greatly appreciated.



Mark

Ga_Boy, like many things I think it comes down to marketing.  If you do a google search on "ambrosia maple", print out some pictures of things people have built with it, show the pix to your customers, and offer it as a specialty wood, then the price goes up.  Have a couple S4S boards so people can see exactly what it will look like.

If people are looking for clear maple and all you have is ambrosia/wormy, then it may be considered a defect and the price could go down.  I think when it comes to the recreational woodworking customer, you have to do some educating and let them see that people do make furniture out of wood other than just red oak and oftentimes the defects are what makes the wood and ultimately the furniture interesting.

So I guess the real answer to your question is...... it depends. :D

I'm in for MORE  :) I've got about 1500BF ready for the kiln.

Captain

Must be sumpthing wrong with my computer. That link that Jeff posted is displaying the picture fine, but seems they want $18,500.00 for that dining set!!!  :o :o :o :o :o :o
Wonder how many of those they sell a week.  :)

I didnt notice the price till after posting the link. I guess, whatever. If he can get that we need to invite him on over here for some tips on marketing.  I think it is kinda cool, but as mentioned, very busy. I know it would get on my nerves after just a short time. :D

  I agree with Hokie, 1000%. We have the same thing with the "Pecky" Cypress. One guy hates it, the next wants 5000 bd/ft. ???  Ya just never know.

 I DO know, if you have it and nobody else does, it's KA-CHING, all the way to the bank.  ;) ;) :) :)

  Don't HAFTA sell many per week. One a month would make me smile. ;) ;D ;D

As for the table, I could settle for two a year. ;D

Guys/ gals,

  Anyone claiming to be "the best" like that is well a little pompus and quite frankly nieve. I build cool stuff and hesitate to even be called "a master" as the teachinig gig I used to do wanted to bill it. I get real tired of the hype out there. I just do what I do as best as I can I have been very bessed with great clients and talent, both in the shop, with the clients and in business generally. I HATE HYPE. I do love the Ambrosia.

                                REID

  Gotta agree with ya Reid. However, that "Hype" gets the recognition.  ::) ::)

Ga_Boy,  The price for wormy soft maple (whnd) is considerably less than for clear soft maple (whad)  if you are selling on the green lumber market.  Like everything else, though, it is worth what an individual buyer is willing to pay.

Faron,

I agree.   Two of my regulars stoped by last night and picked up one piece of maple and two pieces of Walnut.

One did not like the wormey Maple the other thought it was really nice.


There is one guy that has been calling me for three weeks waiting for sme QS Oak to come out of the kiln.  Well, I called him Sunday morning to let him know I was pulling the packs a part and had some oak ready.

This guy lives two counties away; it's a 45 minute drive one way for him.  He calls me back just as I finished loading the Holly on my small trailer for delivery.  The Oak guy says " I am leaving right now and will be there in 45 minutes"; so now I gotta hang around the house and wait for this guy.  Oh well, I still got a lot of sorting to do so I get to that while I wait.

Sure enough 45 minutes later he dirives up.  I spend about 30-40 minutes with this guy teaching him about the diffferences in QS, rift and falt sawn.  We go through all of my RO, he pickes out pieces of QS and flat sawn so he can compare the differences for this table top he wants to build.  He had never seen QS.  I take one of the pieces of QS he picked out and run it through the planer for him to see the ray fleck.  Now, he can not make up his mind which to use; to many choices!  So; what does he do; he gets in his truck and leaves with out any wood.  City folk!

I deliver the Holly to a cabinet builder client; this guy also teaches a wood working class at the college, I tell hime about this guy, well at least he has a good laugh.



Mark

Win some loose some. Heck when father was farming we used to have to load trucks in the middle of the night cause some trucker who was suppose to be here by 2:00 pm that day dogged it all day. The truck had to be loaded and father couldn't wait untill 8:00 am the next day, we needed the floor space.  I tell ya after working all day and into the early morning hours of the next day your not much good the rest of the new day. ::)

I've got some big soft maple to cut sometime. Sure hope it looks as great as what you've got. That should sell good and maybe I'll even make some moulding with some after I buy the planer moulder I been studying and drooling over. :D 8) :D 8) :P Just seems I need to save up some $ or could but rather not take the mfr. up on a sale they just sent and finance it. But then I work for it instead of it working for me ???

maple flats, you must have got the same in the mail as I did, makes it tempting, but you are right, I would have to work for it then. Other stuff needs to come first.

Maple Flats & WH Conley,

Which are you looking at and drooling over?   I just got the Woodmaster 718 a couple months back.  Still haven't use it much.  I need to get the kiln going first.  The little I did use it was great.  Does a great job plaining, but I haven't tried molding yet.

DR Buck (Dave)

Ga-boy

   I cal those guys "tire kickers". Mistakenly put an add in the paper for a Cub Lowboy we had at our place when we bought it. NO OFFENSE, but these old retired guys can waste more of my time D-cking around. They were just tooling around with their wifes aggravating hard working folk like me. The tractor was fairly priced and in outstanding shape with all the toys and a clause in  the paper that " I will not piece out the impliments"  They would still asked me would I sell this or that...............SORRY for the rant, but I know the feeling. If you sell to the general public it can be frustrating. Especially if your most likely market has too much time on their hands.  :-X :-X :-XReid