New Veritas Chisels ?

[Jacob]

...........
Basically -it's baking the wood at 170C ( I think that was the temp ) causing the sugars in the maple to caramelise ... Coloring the wood to a very nice brown throughout. Makes the wood very dry too...and hard to turn. I'm not aware of any specific mechanical changes ( as one could have with ash ) ....

Cheers

Rob

I know nothing about it but having googled it seems that there will very likely be mechanical changes, mainly harder surface and more brittle. Er - not good for a chisel handle surely? Maple is already brittle before you do anything at all.
Machining has to be done first - it sounds a bit like toughening glass and similar processes.

http://www.musterkiste.com/en/holz/stw/ ... _wood.html