Everything I've built before has been using pine and the occasional oak or birch plywood. I'm finally going to build something "nice" and non-Country and want to know which would be easier to work with. I'm building a night stand, don't want it dark, but since it's my first time with hardwood, I don't want to ruin things or get too frustrated.
White Oak or Maple easier to work with??
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maple doesn't like to stain evenly if you were planning on using stain. it is very nice to work with. I haven't worked much with white oak. Ash is sometimes a bit cheaper and has a similar look to oak. Oak or maple is nicer to work with than pine.
It depends on the look you want. any of the oaks have alot of grain. Regular maple (not figured) has a very plain/smooth look.Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison -
I want to lightly stain, like a light golden oak or just a yellow-ey varnish. I'm going to use a figured veneer for the panels and want a straight grain as a contrast. I hadn't thougt of ash, but that sounds doable.Comment
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White Oak is very hard but otherwise machines quite nicely. If you are planning on screws anywhere, you need to predrill. It also takes stain a little differently than red oak - red oak has open pores on it. I agree that maple is harder to stain evenly. You may need a sanding sealer, prestain conditioner or similar if you are using maple.David
The chief cause of failure in this life is giving up what you want most for what you want at the moment.Comment
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White oak works pretty well...quartersawn white oak is a bit more prone to tearout from planing. Some maple works ok, especially clear soft maple but hard maple is very hard, resists sanding, and doesn't take stain well. Curly maple is prone to tearout from planing....birdseye maple even more so.Happiness is sort of like wetting your pants....everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth.Comment
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I have made many pieces out of maple. I find it much easier to work with than white oak.
I actually enjoy the look of the staining on the maple - even if it is uneven. My wife finds it easier to decorate with the various shades of maple.Comment
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My kitchen is maple, my tv stand is a Salamander Synergy copy (http://www.salamanderdesigns.com/syn/index.jsp) made out of maple, my kitchen cutting blocks are maple. My Ultimate Tool Stand is made out of maple ply. I manage to get the scrap flooring from new rail cars and make projects out of it - maple again. Maybe because maple is so readily available here in Canada I use it so often. It is the ideal wood for me. I even burn Manitoba Maple ( a "weed maple tree") in my woodstove to heat my house.
I would think that in the southern US maple would be a bit more $$. I would encourage you to try it.Comment
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I have to agree with knotley, maple is one of my favorite woods. Of course, there are varieties of maple, hard and soft, and curly of each type. Most curly maple is considered "soft" maple, but it's not really all that soft. It really finishes nicely. If you use an oil finish, it will yellow beautifully, like seal-a-cell and arm-r-seal. If you want to tint it, I would recommend trying a water based, or better yet, a dye like transtint. Or a died shellac as a sealer coat before your top coats.
Of all the woods I've used maple consistently gives the nicest, smoothest finish. It's not too hard on the wallet, and I don't mind the sawn smell. You can get some really amazing figured pieces as well.
Here are a couple of projects that I've posted, you can see the color change, etc...
http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=32922
http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=11050
http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=18697
This last set, the bottom project is a small box, it looks unreal but I honestly did not modify the photo. It uses birdseye maple veneer and some figured maple for the top.
Obviously most of these projects include curly maple as a decoration, but straght grain hard maple works very well also. The door on the desk is hard maple, machines wonderfully.
Curly maple can have issues at times with chatter for routing, etc... but the pay off is in the figure.
White oak is VERY hard, I've used it on a few occasions and it's darn near scary at times how hard this stuff is.Keith Z. Leonard
Go Steelers!Comment
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Oaks have more of a tendency to split, worse with Red Oak. Also the pores have to be filled to get a smooth finish.Don, aka Pappy,
Wise men talk because they have something to say,
Fools because they have to say something.
PlatoComment
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Easier to work with? I've done more with white oak than maple but I haven't had better or worse luck with one or the other. White oak end grain has given me a bit of trouble milling profiles but other than that no issues.
I like the look of oak more than most maple and I don't fill the pores because I like the texture of it.
Just depends on what looks good to you for the piece you're going to make.
That said, I scored a beautiful piece of figured maple that is going to be the center of my new kitchen table which is going to be maple ringed by jatoba. PatWoodworking is therapy.....some of us need more therapy than others. <ZERO>Comment
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Nobody has mentioned the tendency of maple to burn. If you have pitch on your blade or router cutter or your feed rate is inconsistent, maple will burn. Oak is much less prone to do that in my experience. The soft maple I have worked with was also ligher in color than the hard. Some of the hard was kind of grey. I clear finish so I did not care for the color of the hard. With machines, none of these woods is hard to machine. Deep cuts on either with the BT3100 (I have done 3+ inches) require a slow feed rate which nearly guarantees some burning of maple. Normal 13/16 lumber can be cut without burning if you have your equipment in order.
I have done more with oak but built a bedroom set for my daughter and some jewelry boxes in maple. The bedroom set had hard maple where it would wear and soft maple with a little figure for drawer fronts. I also made a rifle stock out of the scraps and a walnut scrap (it is 3 layers with the walnut in the middle). I did a whole kitchen, 4 kitchen chairs, and end, coffee, and hall tables out of oak (and also our bedroom set). I like oak a little better but maple is nice, especially if it has figure. Figured wood needs to be sanded more than planed, and the amount you can plane is a function of how sharp your knives are, how small a bit you are willing to take, and how much figure the wood has (more figure = more tendency to tear).
My favorites are cherry and walnut but either oak or maple would be a step up from softwoods. Maple and cherry seem more refined to me and oak has more character. Usage depends on what you want. All are reasonable to work with. Plain maple and cherry are a little boring but figured stuff is nicer than oak IMHO.
JimComment
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Thanks everyone for your information. That's why I love this forum. Reading things in magazines is one thing, but advice is a lot more credible when it's coming from real life people outside the controlled atmosphere of a $200,000 magazine shop with all the best tools and the ability to do it 10 times before it's perfect.
I think I'm going to go with the maple since I'm going to use a figured veneer in the panels. I find staining endgrain a little frustrating because working with pine, you have the same problem as popeye points out. I also like the smoother texture because it's similar to pine. I'll be sure to take some pics as it goes.
(and thanks to dkerfoot for the Tool Fast thread that made me decide to build something "nice" before I buy the next tool!)Comment
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I go along with Ash or White Oak. Ash is a beautifully grained hardwood, and machines and finishes great. White Oak differs from Red Oak in that it's a closed pore wood. For light woods, another good selection.
If you pick a darker wood and want to lighten it up, you can use an oil base pickling technique which can produce pastel shades showing the grain, to very light almost a painted look, still with grain showing.
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Jim is right about planing figured wood. You can wet the surface, which raises the grain, and that can help with tear out, good sharp knives are the way to go though. And sending the board through the planer at a big of an angle to the grain creates somewhat of a sheer cut.
I have jointed and planed highly figured maple without issue with very sharp knives, but I also have a handy dandy drum sander available if there is a lot of tear out.
The hard maple that I have used (there are different sub-species of hard maple) is very close in color to the soft maple that I've used. I have not had any grey. All of those maple examples that I posted are with seal-a-cell and arm-r-seal. I have also used water based clear coats on maple, but it really doesn't do any coloring.Keith Z. Leonard
Go Steelers!Comment
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