The quilted maple bowl

A fellow from Tully known as John G. generously gave me a lump of heavily quilted Queensland maple. That "lump" had what I called a "tapered tail". I removed that tail piece, rough turned it four months ago and finished it off today. I kept it plain and added no features or glued on bits, so that the quilting can be fully appreciated, the bowl has had two thin coats of sprayed lacquer and cut back with OOOO steel wool to leave a low sheen for photographing. It will get further thin coats of lacquer but will end up with a low sheen finish. the bowl is 260mm x 100mm deep.
Hopefully I have done this magnificent piece of maple justice.

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Jim

Hi Jim , very nice "lump " of maple ........
Well done mate looks good :2tsup:

Have done the wood proud well done.

There's a lot to like about that Jim. A beautiful piece of wood that is highlighted by a simple shape with a great finish.

Tony

Looks good, I would have oiled it, the piece I got from an old bloke in Ingham was like that & the dept of the quilt increased with oil.

A great piece Jim
Ted

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Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

Looks good, I would have oiled it, the piece I got from an old bloke in Ingham was like that & the dept of the quilt increased with oil.

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:whs:

I think you picked the right form to showcase the grain... but if your SWMBO is anything like mine, the first thing she'll do is fill it with not so pretty stuff. :sigh:

that is nice and even nicer for being in bowl form :2tsup:

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Originally Posted by powderpost

A fellow from Tully known as John G. generously gave me a lump of heavily quilted Queensland maple. .... 260mm x 100mm deep.


Hopefully I have done this magnificent piece of maple justice.

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Jim

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Jim, I hope you don't mind me chipping in on this thread.

My story with the following piece of flame (or quilted) Queensland Maple is that the tree came down in cyclone Larry in 2006, was acquired by Ern Reeders (Rsser) who then kindly gave it to me. It sat waiting for a special purpose for a number of years, then last year a good friend was looking to send a piece of turned Australian wood to someone in the US as a thank you, so I turned this simple platter from it (to have embellish it any more would have been sacrilege; 300mm diam, wax finish), gave it to my friend, who gave it to the folk in the US. Some pieces keep giving!

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Flindersia brayleyana mostly grows in World Heritage protected areas, so pieces as good as this are becoming rare to come by and when available usually get snapped up by the luthiers. I may never get another chance to turn a piece as good as this.

It sure is a pretty timber. Is it super slow growing?. If not you'd think it'd be worth growing in plantations.

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Originally Posted by artful bodger

It sure is a pretty timber. Is it super slow growing?. If not you'd think it'd be worth growing in plantations.

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Unlike most other timbers, Qld Maple (btw, it's not a maple) doesn't have discernible growth rings, so it is hard to know what age the mature trees are. I expect if it were economical to be grown as a plantation timber that would have happened by now.

Like many of our premium timbers, we are in effect mining them and they won't be replaced in our life times or, in many cases, for many centuries; that is if climate change doesn't do them in anyway.

Anyway, when it comes to premium timbers that are still available, Tasmania is a good place for you to be Artful.

I have some 'Larry' maple in the shed too.

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Originally Posted by NeilS

Unlike most other timbers, Qld Maple (btw, it's not a maple) doesn't have discernible growth rings, so it is hard to know what age the mature trees are. I expect if it were economical to be grown as a plantation timber that would have happened by now.

Like many of our premium timbers, we are in effect mining them and they won't be replaced in our life times or, in many cases, for many centuries; that is if climate change doesn't do them in anyway.

Anyway, when it comes to premium timbers that are still available, Tasmania is a good place for you to be Artful.

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meh.... plenty of maple out there... its a quick grower, There are plantations of it but not much online yet - though the ones in Hawaii are close because they were putting it into plantations there before anyone ever thought to do so here. We had no need to - we had the worlds most sustainably managed timber resource.... it was never going to end. Maple is like a lot of tropical rainforest woods... its a quick grower. 40 years is a harvest rotation - the plantation stuff they'er talking about 40-60 from seedling to log... but they're only "just logs."

Usually maple you're talking 60 -80 years to make a good sawlog.... I'm cutting plenty big enough logs today off sites my father cut in the late 70's/ early 80's ... so what they left as too small then is now big, and what I leave as too small today will be plenty big in 2060. Seeing as I will die in a sawmill because I've got no plans to retire I expect to be cutting those trees down myself.



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Those aren't "old growth" Qld Maple trees... I'm about cutter number 4 across that area since the 1890's.... they just did what trees do which is keep growing, same as the ones I left behind this time will.

Thanks John G for giving us the facts on Qld Maple.

Good to know that it will be available for some time to come. That will keep the luthiers happy.

Sounds like you have your superannuation sorted out John G.

The Hawaii story sounds familiar. They took what we called bush nuts from where I lived as a kid (FN Coast of NSW), played around with them, and then exported them around the world at a premium nut; aka macadamias...:rolleyes: