Identifying figured wood

[DKinWA]

Are there some tell-tale signs a person can look for to determine if a log might have some figure in it?  We don't have much for hardwoods around here, but we do have some nice red alder and big leaf maple available.  I've searched the forum, but I'm not getting a good feel for things I should look for.  Thanks.

[Tom]

There are a few, but even the experienced get fooled.   You really don't know until you open a log.

Bumps  on the outside can indicate curl on many species.  Pecky cypress keeps its secret until bucked.  Then you can sometimes see some peck in the end of the log.  I'm not familiar with hard maples, but there are some folks who claim to be able to see birdseye from the outside.

You can almost bet on some good figure in a crotch, but that is even suspect until you get in there,because the bark inclusion may have kept the two sides from joining.   Of course, even then there are small pieces that can be salvaged for boxes and turned pen and pencil sets.

[Blue Sky]

It has been my experience when looking for figure, to look at the end of the log.  A 'ripply' kind of look usually indicates some figure, but generally, it is very hard to spot figure until you open up the log.  Around here, peeling the bark off a log will show up some signs of figure.  This past summer, I came across a Sugar Maple with extra-ordinary volumes of small bumps on its surface.  It sawed out to beautiful figure. 
    Keep poking around, asking questions, especially from folks who have been sawing for  awhile.  Stories are great, most times.  Good Luck.   Enchanted Forester

[DKinWA]

Now that I think about it, it was kind of a dumb question ;D If figured wood was easy to identify, there would be a lot of mill owners driving around in shiny new diesel pickups :D  I guess I'll have to just keep looking.

[Ironwood]

DKinWa,

It is one of those things that needs to be learned pretty much first hand or aided in person by someone who has been doing it for years. There are so many sublities to grasp. Not impossible to do it alone (I kinda did), but it takes years to figure out the nuiances. I have been poking around for years, learning little bits and pieces from here, there, from others and so on. The profit that you spoke of is "what the average Joe" would think, trust me there is a reason for the  cost of GOOD figured lumber, it is not typically produced in mass due to the ineffiecencies in trying to find it, Spaulted Maple for instance is an economic loser for sure, you can chase 20 logs and find maybe only one that will payout in the end, 15 are completely junk when opened,  (after drying, MUCH degrade is the norm, ie collapsing grain and so on), then maybe only one is nice inside (good attractive spault and so on). You (or me as a producer) are playing the averages, TONS of losses on the front end, so when you get a good one you GOTTA MAKE it pay for alll the other bad ones. Look at my gallery for examples.


                      Ironwood

[SwampDonkey]

Birdseye maple for instance, usually comes out in the bark of sugar maple. But, I don't know a single figured wood buyer who buys wood based on bark. That is because stuff like birdseye can be superficial and deceiving. Meaning it can be in the sapwood only, it can occur like a spiral up the tree, in can occur on 1 or 2 faces, the tree can have a large undesirable heartwood, the tree can be hollow.  All rejected by birdseye buyers.

[woodmills1]

I wanted to post this reply earlier, but couln't find the contact info.  Seems the website is down for this, but I just got my copy in the mail.

Loggers buying guide is published by Sawlog Bulletin Magazine.  In it they advertise a book called  "Birdseye Maple Book" which says it can help you identify standing birseye maple.  16 pages 22 pictures

sawlog bulletin birdseye book
po box 9
littleton, NH
03561

888 290 5647

I have not seen the book
http://www.mapletrader.com/community/archive/index.php/t-547.html

[Sparty]

If you search the database on woodweb you can get the birdseye maple "book" for free.  I printed it out and, if I remember right, its a free booklet from the U.S. forestry service. 

[beenthere]

Sparty
Can you give us more info on that publication?  Name, Author, pub'n number, year...??

That will help locate it.

Thanks

[SwampDonkey]

I think your right Sparty. I think it's a dated publication to, at least 12 years old. But that doesn't matter. The information is as useful today as ever. Birdseye is birdseye. ;D

Some of us know where there is all kinds and how to find it in the tree. Just because you see some in a tree doesn't mean it the good stuff. Of all the trees I know I can walk to, to show you, they are all on public forest land. I know a lot has been harvested. I think some of the guys in Michigan have seen it by looking at the bark to. Jeff might have seen it and Corley, in tree form of course. An old timer showed me all kinds of it around a couple camps and I found some myself that was being cut and ground up. It was ground up because the trees were so old and hollow they would make better culverts than boards. ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Field Identification of Birdseye in Sugar Maple (Acre sacrum marsh.) Resource paper NC-317. St Paul Minnesota, USDA, Forest Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station. (16 pages.).

http://nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/rp/rp_nc317.pdf

[woodmills1]

It would be very sad if the book that is being offered for sale is the same as one the government offers for free.  I checked the woodweb but could not find a reference.  I think more research is in order here.

[woodmills1]

apparently I didnt read the link I posted above, as in it the author says that the books are one and the same.  Man thats some shady business, and somehow seems like it should be breaking some federal law.  I think I will call the company as I am on their mailing list.

[9shooter]

  Like any wood, figure varies all over the map. Birdseye can be anywhere from just a few eyes to eyepoppingly beautiful. (how'd ya like that word) I know of 1 birdseye log that recently sold for over $100,000/1000.  In Michigan's Western U.P. birdseye is not uncommon. There are certain growing conditions that an experianced forestry worker knows that will often produce a birdseye maple.  When I worked up there It wasn't uncommon to find a birdseye or 2 on many of the 40's we cut.  We usually left these trees full length and buryed them until the buyers came to bid on them. They have been the target of wood rustlers. I have also spotted them when out hunting on federal and state lands and I noticed that one real nice one got poached. It was there one season and gone the next.
   I am considering marketing spalted maple. I have several tops ageing in the woods and they are reaching prime spalt figure. The branch junctions and crotchs are really nice. I am thinking about leaving 6" of every branch proud of the trunk whenever I cut firewood off every maple and coming back for the top in 4-6 years. The idea is to limit checking at the branch junctions. I have been doing some checking around and the supply of spalted maple is rather spotty.
   I also have got to get my waders on and go retrieve a maple that fell in a local stream. I spotted it from the road last year and could see a heavy quilt figure. The landowwner said I could have the tree if I cleared some other trees that fell in the river that are obstructing his view upstream.  :D

[SwampDonkey]

Keep dry in the process. The water is cold this time of year.  ;)

[9shooter]

Yah, plenty cold..........I worked for a year clearing log jams from a river. we didn't do much wading in the winter. Fortunatly the water is shallow where this tree is at.