Wood movement

[Racers]

Nice little piece on him on Vimeo:

https://vimeo.com/173207895

Thanks for posting, what a lovely guy that Mr Gilpin is.

If Pete Maddex is reading, I've got some very nice off-cuts of the same highly figured Fiddleback Ambrosia Maple that is shown at 05:11 in that video, it might be just what you need for one of your boxes. If so PM me and it's yours.

Pm sent!


Pete

 

[woodbrains]

Ambrosia maple... I have seen it before, but what is it exactly? a form of spalting? fungal attack whilst the tree is still alive?

It's some kind of boring beetle or worm. These are some of the Ambrosia Maple boards I've been working with,









If you look really closely there's almost always a 1mm diameter hole in the centre of the dark brown streak. The streaking seems to be some kind of chemical reaction between the sap and the bug. I always fill the hole in finished furniture so it's invisible, worm holes generally give clients the heebie-jeebies! Up until maybe ten or twenty years ago these boards were pulped or used for firewood, it's only recently that the market has woken up to their appeal.

There is another Maple phenomena that I've occasionally heard described as Ambrosia, I've only ever come across it with Birds-Eye Maple and it looks like this,



I've had a few of these boards over the years, but they're a pipper to actually use successfully in a project, so they tend to hang around the workshop for ages until inspiration strikes. This has a much broader band of a dark honey colour. I doubt this could be caused by a worm, and anyway there's never any evidence of a flight hole. I don't know the explanation, but maybe it's a soil effect like Mike suggested?

Hello,

It was the bottom photo of the Birdseye maple that I understood to be ambrosia, I didn't realise about the beetle thing. My legendary ripple, spalted, ambrosia board had the colouring of your Birdseye board, so I think it does exist without the Birdseyes. I'll see if I can dig out a photo.

Mike.

 

[Racers]

Its a fungus carried by the boring beetle, they farm it for food.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosia_beetle

Pete

 

[custard]

Its a fungus carried by the boring beetle, they farm it for food.

I never knew that, I just assumed Ambrosia was a made up name designed to make a particular timber more appealing, like Poplar being called Tulipwood.

PM sent by the way.