Quilted Maple
Quilted Maple Lumber is premium figured hardwood of the Big Leaf variety. Quilt figure can appear bulbous, tubular, blister, burly, curly and is often chatoyant . Additionally, Quilt figure is sometimes referred to as Angel Step, Tubular Quilt, or Blister figured.
High chatoyancy quilt maple is rare and highly sought after by music instrument manufacturers.
The name Quilted Maple comes from its visual resemblance to a fabric quilt pattern. Typically, this figure is associated with Western Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum). Additionally, Bigleaf maple or western maple, is a large deciduous tree, genus Acer.
Quilted maple lumber is a favorite of guitar builders, bass luthiers, and other musical instrument manufacturers. Specifically, luthiers of electric guitars use quilted maple lumber to slice book-matched guitar tops. Acoustic guitar makers typically slice Big Leaf Quilt for guitar backs & sides.
Additionally, highly figured maple logs are often used by veneer companies to saw flitches or sequentially matched lamellas to make decorative plywood.
Like Birdseye Maple, quilted maple is most obvious when the lumber’s grain orientation is tangential, plain-sawn or flat-sawn.
Quilted Maple Technical Information
- Scientific name: Acer macrophyllum
- Alternative Names: West Coast Maple, Pacific Coast Maple, Big Leaf, PC Maple, Western Maple, Oregon Maple, Broad Leaf Maple
- Region of Origin: North America (primarily Western USA, British Columbia, Oregon,California)
- Average Dried Weight: 32 LB/cubic foot
- Chatoyance: High
- Heartwood Color: tan/orange/brown
- Sapwood Color: off white, cream to pale
- Janka Hardness Rating: 825
- Specific Gravity: .56
- IUCN Red List: No
- CITES wood: No
What Causes Quilt Figure?
In Understanding Wood, R Bruce Hoadley explains how quilt figure lumber occurs in nature. Significantly, Hoadley, was Professor Emeritus of Building and Construction Materials in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst)
The unique pattern of quilt figure looks like ripples on water. Also, it appears on the flat-sawn grain orientated face of the maple wood most prominently. Generally speaking, quilt is found exclusively in Western Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum).
In my experience in the figured wood and millwork industry, I have never seen an example of prominently quilt figured Sugar Maple or Soft Maple.
Is Quilted Maple the Same as Curly Maple?
While similar, curly maple is different than quilted maple lumber. However, when wood-grain shifts, quilt and curl can appear within different areas within the same board.
How is Quilt Figured Wood Graded?
Is Quilted Maple Lumber Expensive?
Yes, highly figured quilt maple lumber is expensive. Additionally, the cost is similar to highly figured birdseye sugar maple lumber.
Specifically,as of June 2022, prices range from $3 per board foot for lightly quilted maple to $150 per board foot for extremely dense quilt figure.
As with Birdseye figure, there is no universal standard for grading quilt figure. Thus, vendors market grades such as A, AA, AAA, AAAA, 5A, musical grade, exhibition grade, etc. with little consistency.
Quilted Maple Lumber For Sale
Significantly, few lumber yards sell quilt figured maple lumber. There are 3 reasons why.
- First, Big Leaf Maple is not widely produced specie among the maples.
- Second, quilt figure is relatively rare to find. Sawyers claim only 1% of big leaf maple trees exhibit grain figure patterns.
- Third, to avoid confusion most yards like to sell one item for one price. For example, Quilted Maple has one price, $10/BF. Unfortunately, if the store sells the quilted maple lumber at $10/BF, the high-end figure sells quickly while the lower-end figure remains unsold and appears over-priced. Moreover, this is the dilemma for many exotic wood sellers.
Interested in quartersawn limba that is wide enough to make a one piece tele or strat in 4 foot or longer planks. Could that be possible and if so how much would it be for 100 plus board feet?
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