Fiddel back maple

[Indiana saw man]

fiddel back maple, or curly maple i all called it fiddel back after i plane it it has a lot of chips in sanding dont help a lot . Any ideals on how it get to not have the chips in it ?

[Gill]

Have you tried a sharp cabinet scraper or a scraper plane?

Gill

[CanadianScroller]

Unfortunately sanding with progressive grits of sandpaper is the only way.
The grain is unruly, which is why the figuring is so wonderful.
You may try taking it to a cabinet shop and have them put it through a thickness sander.

I recently did a picture frame in curly maple and the sanding was endless.
A thickness planer leaves chips and tearout.

Gill's cabinet scraper would work once you get the hang of it. I find the hardest part of the cabinet scraper is keeping the edge. I guess I need more practice.

[Jediscroller]

A couple of ways to reduce chip-out in highly figured woods are to feed the wood at an angle through the planer and take very light passes. Of course, a drum sander is the best option (unfortunately I don't have one....YET) but this 2 things helped me tremendously when planing some figured maple and curly cherry boards.

[Indiana saw man]

Thanks alot for all the infomation i try the angel in my thickness planer like you i dont have a drum sander yet , santa will make that happen . speaking of santa it just amazes me how all my friends and family stopes in to see u this time of year . i am just glad i got my wood shop done finaly it took all year to get it done i truned a 12 ft by 60ft old moble home into my wood shop diid all walls with half round maple cherry and ask boards looks like a log cabin on inside . but thank u all for your help.

[CanadianScroller]

Would love to see some pictures of that shop!

[Indiana saw man]

Shop

I will take sum picture of my shop and all my work i have done over the year and post them . It will be after deer hunting is over it starts this sat hopefully i will fill my tags quick. key word hopefully lol

[workin for wood]

I agree with the cabinet scraper and the planing on an angle. You also have to spray the wood with water before planing...just put some water in a spray bottle, don't drown it. make light passes with sharp blades and spritz the wood before each pass, and the fiddleback will come out flawless. Drum sander is great, but fiddleback burns big time and gums up your sanding paper extra fast. I'm a firm believer in the drum sander, but the sharp planer with water is the fastest way with fiddleback maple. You think sanding a nick out is bad, a burn can be impossible to sand out. A well tuned cabinet scraper, that'll fix your problem this time around I'm sure.

[Indiana saw man]

Thanks for the info. i never tried the water trick i give it a try , i have lota of fiddelback maple and sum cherry also .



Thanks again Indian saw man