First time posting here. I just want to put it out there that I'm very very very new to woodworking and that the number of tools I have at my disposal is very limited.
I'm trying to make a jewelry box for my girlfriend for her birthday and I'd like to use a piece of maple that I found laying around in a huge pile that would've been used as firewood. It's got really nice quilted pattern and I'd like to see if theres a way I can maintain that look when it's done but while the same time keeping the organic shape of the wood itself.
Initially theres a lot of splinters on the wood so I'm trying to get rid of them by sanding them out but I noticed that when I sand them the quilted pattern goes away. Is that natural? How would I bring the quilted pattern back?
For tools all I have is a bandsaw, a belt sander and a dremel. If theres any other tools/equipment i would need please let me know! Thank you!
It will come back when you sand to a finer grit then lay down a finish. Curl shows up because of the way light bounces off the surface.
Your board is Curley maple quilted maple is round pillows. Or bubbles
Good Luck
Beautiful wood. Do you plan to resaw to thinner slabs with the bandsaw, then sand flat? May be difficult to do without a planer or drum sander or handplane. Good luck!
Ah okay! I'll def work on that then! Is there any finishes you guys recommend for curly maple? I'm actually wondering if theres a finish out there that has little to no coloration at all but can also give some sort of shine to it.
I'm actually planning to trying to maintain the shape of the wood itself as much as possible so I'm trying to use the bandsaw as sparingly as possible. I usually sand my wood from 80 to 800 and then begin applying my finishes to continue going to to 3000 grit sand paper.
Would you guys recommend a scraper for this application? I'm looking into getting a planer because I really like the smoothness of the wood after its planed and it something really hard to replicate with sanding.
Rattle can spray lacquer. If your county sells it. I also say no to water based. Anything oil based will possibly turn your project yellowish
Good Luck
Hmmm I'd prioritize bringing out the figure of the wood as much as possible so if a water based finish wouldn't do it then I'd be okay with the color changing. I was just wondering if it was possible to have both.
As for the box, I would cut this in half lengthwise, hollow/carve out the interior and have the jewelry be inside. I was thinking of either using hinges for opening/closing or create grooves so it could slide ooen/close with magnets embedded into the wood to keep them closed.
Not really sure if this is too ambitious of a project but I'm always opening for ideas/recommendations.
If you have not done so, do a net search "dyeing quilted maple" to see the many ways of bringing out the figure of the wood. None will keep the wood "white" - just the fact that all the types of finishes that do this have at least some yellow to them. When you find something you like, post a link to it here and ask for help. Try "finishing quilted curly maple" as well.
It really comes down to what color you want and the level of grain enhancement.
There is a concurrent Lumberjocks thread that has a lot of great information about finishing figured maple: https://www.lumberjocks.com/topics/304728 You should check it out.
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