As I understand it, the maple is "infected" by the ambrosia beetle which causes the coloring in the wood.
Hope this helps. Might wanna Google to get a more definitive answer.
Bill

 

It's maple that is affected by the ambrosia beetle once the tree is dying or dead. It leaves unique looking tunnels/figure in maple. The beetle affects other woods too, but people are most attracted to the maple.

 

Never heard it called anything but Ambrosia maple. Pretty common here in the South. Just a beautiful wood.

 

BTW, you see more and more luthiers using it for their guitars, like in this back and side set here…

It's kinda pretty when finished up.

 

Yep,I know that some species of the ambrosia attack walnut and oak as well. I'm sure there are others. Maple is the common, pretty one.

 

Another example:

 

Gorgeous, Charlie!

 

My local sawmill calls it wormy maple. Most ambrosia maple around here comes from Silver Maple. I have seen it in Sugar Maple and Sycamore too.
The discoloration is caused by ambrosia fungi which is carried by the ambrosia beetle.

 

Ive heard it called wormy maple up here in new england as well. Great to work with and if you can find curly ambrosia maple its amazing looking.

 

I think that it is very beautiful. All the work of a little beetle and a hitchhiking fungus!

 

Another example of wormy maple (Ambrosia Maple).

 

Awesome box, John!

 

Here is a quote from Wikipedia on the subject.

"Ambrosia beetles are beetles of the weevil subfamilies Scolytinae and Platypodinae (Coleoptera, Curculionidae), which live in nutritional symbiosis with ambrosia fungi and probably with bacteria. The beetles excavate tunnels in dead trees in which they cultivate fungal gardens, their sole source of nutrition. After landing on a suitable tree, an ambrosia beetle excavates a tunnel in which it releases spores of its fungal symbiont. The fungus penetrates the plant's xylem tissue, digests it, and concentrates the nutrients on and near the surface of the beetle gallery. The majority of ambrosia beetles colonize xylem (sapwood and/or heartwood) of dying or recently dead trees. Species differ in their preference for different parts of trees, different stages of deterioration, in the shape of their tunnels ("galleries").

So Ambrosia maple is wood from a tree that has had fungus introduced by the Ambrosia beetle, it creates a very striking and random patterns in the wood. Beautiful stuff.

 

Thanks Jay,

it's actually a full size chest. I got the idea while making a band saw box one day.

 

Have you tried Superior Hardwood, just before you get to Missoula on the south side of hwy 93? They have
a pretty good selection and are very knowledgeable. If you need special wood, they can order it. A friend
just got a good selection of long mahogany boards in to redo a Chris Craft he is restoring. Hope you are having
fun with your fishing, and that the smoke is finally gone from your valley for the year.

 

That's funny, John. Now that you mention it, the ambrosia markings would have to be rather big for it to be a smaller box. We see so many bandsaw boxes here that i just made an assumption. Thats not really a bandsaw box, is it? I bet that was was a challenge!

The size makes that piece very impressive in its beauty and design. It's hard to see the perspective in that picture!

 

I've done a number of boxes using ambrosia maple and love working with it. The "shell" as I call it, came to me making one of my small boxes. It was only about a week later that I was at one of my lumber suppliers and they had a couple sheets of ambrosia maple veneer and a nice selection of 6/4 ambrosia maple, so just had to make it out of that.

Actually the picture in my avatar shows the size of the "shell" (I'm standing behind it) The reason it got the name; "shell" is the shell I had to build first to form the outer shape of the piece. The outer shape of the shell is veneer and the face and back was laid up with 6/4 solid ambrosia maple. Drawer fronts where cut from the face so grain would follow thru the drawer fronts and face frame.

Charlie,
Your box is beautiful !

 

Thanks, John.

I'm glad Jay asked the question about your chest. I looked at it quickly and assumed it was a bandsaw box. That's truly an amazing piece!

 

It is a great piece! Soft maple is a wonderful wood to work with.

 

Is this ambrosia maple?

There was a large tree blown down In LJ Dingle's yard on Sunday and the tree service guy said it was soft maple and only good for firewood and I think it is now cut up into short logs and it could have made 3 8' logs. I managed to bring home these 2 logs. I have never see maple dark in the center when I cut any and with the rays going out I was wondering if this is what is called Ambrosia maple?
.............Jim

 

I think it's found mostly in soft maples and most maples below the Mason-Dixon line (where hard maple is pretty rare, especially way south of the line). I've heard it also called Appalachian maple (although that's probably a misnomer).

 

Guys at my local saw mill call this "Ghost Maple". Some of the stains look kinda ghost-like. And this is more expensive than clean Maple.

 

... this is more expensive than clean Maple.

- OldWrangler

It's funny how it works. When I had a couple of maple trees milled it all turned out to be ambrosia maple, which I couldn't use a stick of, for my purposes. I would have traded it all for clear white soft maple and been happy to get it.

 

My dealer calls it "Soft Maple WHND". I asked about the abbreviation and they said it meant "Worm Hole No Defect", meaning the holes are supposed to be there. They sell it for $2/bf and regular soft maple is $2.80/bf.

 

I have seen it labeled Flame Maple in a store before.