Tiger Maple - Available in the UK?

[Chems]

I saw a build recently made from tiger maple, although it was apparently very hard to work with it did look fantastic, but I don't think its something you can get easily in the states let alone in Britian, does anyone know otherwise?

TIA!

 

[Ironballs]

You can get it very easily in the states but it's hard to come by over here - though I do have some

More easy to get your hands on over here is ripple sycamore, which I also have some of. For both you need a damn sharp plane and to be safe something like a LN LAJ

 

[wizer]

Try timberline

 

[Mooeee]

Try Moss and Co Hammersmith they should be able to help


Also try Interesting Timbers in Bath, I got several large boards of Tiger Oak from them.


Mooeee

 

[Imperial]

This guy Rupert Green, advertises on Ebay as Hardwoodjoblots and seems to specialize in american wood like this and Butternut, Walnut, Cherry etc. Have not bought anything as yet so just for info! If you do or anyone else has let us know please :wink: !



Unit 24, Morris Farms
Parsonage Lane
Trims Green / Spellbrook
Nr Sawbridgeworth
Herts.
CM21 0LX
Tel: 07921 330856

 

[Chems]

Thanks for all the links, I'll report back!

 

[Calpol]

I don't know where to get any but I believe it's also called Curly Maple, might help with searching... :-k

 

[Mooeee]

I think Curly Maple and Tiger Maple are two different types of Maple.

 

[MIGNAL]

Is it? I was under the assumption that it just referred to the figure, as in Curly, Tiger, Fiddleback, figured.
I also thought that the term Sycamore (at least in the UK) is actually a Maple.
That aside, there are a few ways of dealing with the figure when planing it. Plane with the figure (across the grain) and/or use a toothed blade followed by a scraper.

 

[Calpol]

I never knew if they were the same or not but Googled it and this is the first result

http://www.bellforestproducts.com/

 

[Ironballs]

Many of the terms are interchangeable, tiger/flame/curly, you will also get quilted and will see all of them referred to as Big Leaf Maple. Sycamore is of course the European equivalent of the North American maples, sadly for us the grain and figure of sycamore is often a poor relation to maple.

If you want to see good maple, check out these folks

http://www.northridgehardwoods.com/Lumber.htm

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I saw a build recently made from tiger maple, although it was apparently very hard to work with it did look fantastic, but I don't think its something you can get easily in the states let alone in Britian, does anyone know otherwise?

TIA!

Woodworkers, timber merchants, veneer merchants and timber technologists are very inventive in describing interesting or unusual figuring of wood. People all over the world come up with names to describe the same figuring. This didn't matter too much ten or twenty years ago because, for example, British timber merchants tended to sell most of their wood to local customers and nearly everyone was in the same descriptive loop.

Today of course we have the internet and terminology local to Great Britain is used and Americans have no idea what we are talking about. The same incomprehension happens in reverse. Over time the terms used in one region creep into use into another region, and a good example of this is the word dado which now frequently appears in British woodworking forums, even though it is often incorrectly used. For that matter it is misused almost as often by Americans.

This is one of the penalties of the internet; good and bad information flashes around the world in an instant leading to all sorts of misunderstandings. It's amazing how fast a person's opinion becomes an accepted 'fact' even though it may be absolutely wrong and won't stand up to any serious scrutiny or peer review.

Anyway, all that aside, you have come across some American terminology which describes what we in Britain call ripple or fiddleback figure, see below. The Americans call it tiger or fiddleback figure, so there are commonalities. You'll have more success looking for ripple or fiddleback figure than asking around for tiger figure. Slainte.

 

[Mooeee]

Yes I meant it was different types of figure, couldn't think this morning.

I was really trying to explain that if you ordered Maple with Curly Figure you would not get Maple with Tiger Figure.

Sorry for confusion


Mooeee

 

[Calpol]

I thought Fiddleback Maple was a different one again :?

I usually have a look on the Crispin website, see what they make of it and generally go by that... :norm:

 

[OPJ]

Tiger Oak is different altogether. With Tiger Maple (and Rippled Sycamore), the 'tiger stripes' are running at 90º to the grain. With tiger oak, which tends to be more of a brown colour due to the staining (beef steak fungus again!), the dark streaks that that define the 'stripes' tend to run with the grain - in whichever direction it wants to run!

 

[Chems]

Just to drag this up, my local place has Ripple Sycamore, is this the same as Tiger Maple as I've seen in this piece:

 

[TrimTheKing]

Just to drag this up, my local place has Ripple Sycamore, is this the same as Tiger Maple as I've seen in this piece:

Ripple Sycamore (depending how strong the figuring) will look like the stuff on the left side panel of your pic, or inside the angled bit of the right hand panel you can see.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Just to drag this up, my local place has Ripple Sycamore, is this the same as Tiger Maple as I've seen in this piece:

It's very similar and virtually indistinguishable from woods with names like tiger or ripple maple.

The difference is in the botany. European sycamore is Acer pseudoplatanus, whereas the maples with names like ripple maple or tiger maple are generally native to North America; they too are part of the Acer genus but classified as A. saccharum (sugar maple) or A. nigrum (black maple), and soft maples such as A. rubrum (red maple) or A. saccharinum (silver maple). Slainte.

 

[Chems]

Thanks to both for clearing that up. I'll purchase some and see what I think of it.

 

[ivan]

American "sycamore" is in fact a Plane (Platanus) which has marble sized bristly fruits.
The tree we call a Sycamore is a maple (Acer) with leaves that look similar to the Plane tree (hence Acer psuedoplatanus). Maples have winged fruits that make the "helicopters" of childhood.