Ripple figure...but what wood?

[Les Symonds]

Having spent the day on spindles, I decided to run off a quick bowl before supper. Amongst a batch of 50 bowl blanks that I bought recently, was a curious piece of wood that was dramatically mis-shapen. After being band-sawn into a blank it had slumped, like a lump of soft clay and one side was square, yet the opposite side was 15 degrees out of true.
It was a joy to work, cutting easily despite the wild grain and it sanded just as easily, but with a slightly peppery smell. The shavings were soft and feathery off the scraper, but showed little grain pattern. I had planned to make a lidded box, but decided against it as I didn't want to hide the ripple with a lid, so it's just a trinket-bowl, 6" diameter x 2.5 " deep, including the foot.







Any suggestions as to the species would be very welcome....Les

[Bryan Milham]

Les,

well that grain has certainly popped. Looking at it I'd go with one of the Maples.

Shame about the out of focus in the second image, you can either stand further back or open the aperture more for a greater depth of field.

[Roderick Evans]

  Sorry Les, too much ripple for me to attempt identifying it.

Rod

[Les Symonds]

Hi Bryan....my photography is at the stage that my wood-turning was at a year ago....hopefully it will catch up. Could it really be a maple? the colour in the pics is quite true to life. I've not come across any maples that colour.

Les

[Bryan Milham]

Les,

There are many Maples, Sycamores and Acers, all of the same family, and the depth of the ripple make me thing it comes from very low down on the trunk (near what you'd think of as the stump.) A lot of pressure is applied to wood down there, it can cause this sort of effect.

[georg]

    Les   Whatever it is      it  looks  good.   

    Tony and Diane

[Les Symonds]

Got to hand it to you, Bryan, it looks like you're right. I'd discounted the maples because of the overall colour, but our American associates on the 'Woodturners Unlimited' site have come up with the same suggestion. Indeed, they managed to whittle it down to curly sugar maple, which I researched this morning, and it looks like they're right.



This piece shows all the grain featured of mine.

Les