The Beauty of Big Leaf Maple - Acer Macrophyllum

As I wait for the clouds to part and return to dodging rain drops I thought I'd follow up from the Infinity Loop Inlay with some pictures on using Big Leaf Maple for the top of the Gate-leg Table the "Mrs." I went into some description in a previous post about how the figure is coming so I need to show it and explain my thinking (or perhaps unthinking) on the arrangement. So, like I said before this is my first opportunity with this species and I still recall the day we first discovered Acer MacroPhyllum! It was on the trail on the 65 acres we rented,

Jason Kotarski

Sure, it's a quintessential Big Leaf Maple photograph from the Pacific Northwest but we were just floored. Now, how I came upon working with this wood was pure happenstance. After seeing a Gate Leg table in a few places the Mrs. requested one be built for her. So alas, the challenge began. I enjoy woodworking and my favourite challenge is sourcing, felling, and milling the trees myself. Radiance and Nautalis were sourced from storm damaged trees and some architectural remnants. So I thought I should continue the tradition, at least one more time. It takes alot of time this way and pieces may take months if not years.

Having found what I thought was oak, I started the drying process so I could start planing out a slab and see what I might have found.

Jason Kotarski

Since it looked somewhat like oak, to me at the time, I started shooting photos off to my brother the arborist. Some what cryptically as I already stripped the bark off, so I went back into the woods to find it and send a text that looked like this.

Jason Kotarski

By those two photos, we were perplexed but he narrowed it down to the Acer family. Thankfully, a week later, Spring sprung and I found the little branch growing out of the storm damaged tree! And...... alas the tell tale bloom!

Jason Kotarski

Jason Kotarski

Great! I start doing some research and terms like quilt, flame, birds eye, spalt, and punky start flowing. Now I'm getting excited, violins and guitars abound during my research and I start getting the itch do build some. I have my requested dimensions for the table, now I need to figure out how to get to them. Having found two split halves I plane down to the heartwood and find some magnificent figure. I decide these two pieces have to be the wings of the Gate Leg and represent the "Heart" so to speak.

Jason Kotarski

Having several large rounds on hand I start splitting more, first halving to find book matches, then quartering for smaller pieces. Towards the outside of the tree I start to find a whole new figure. In my research it appears this is referred to as mineral staining.

Jason Kotarski

This will also most likely be the figure for the frontispiece on the drawers as well. It really gives the wood direction so I separated it from the "Heart" to show that the wood originally came from the outside portion of the tree. I went back into the woods for more and came out with some logs that were just rotten with Tinder Polypore growing on them. I used my machete to hack down to something solid and when I found the solid portion of the heart I shaved a clean area of about nine inches, finding spalted streaks of green and black and red. I figured this would be fitting to be the next section of the table to show off the spalt and the life cycle of the tree.

Jason Kotarski

I took this photo specifically to show the spalt because after I attach the final banding this will not be seen.

Jason Kotarski

I wanted to show off the face grain and spalt on this piece but I wanted to show one more aspect of this wood in the furniture piece as a whole. This band represents both spalt and quarter-sawn figure. By planing the first two sections down I was able to show the quilting and mineral stain patterns in the face grain. By quarter sawing the last section I hope that the flame figure will come forward. Sadly, I have not yet found birds eye or burl for this project. Those two figures would make this a looooooooooooooooonnnnnnggggg conversation piece!

Jason Kotarski

The piece on the left has sanding sealer on it to help show the figure. After the final edge band is installed, the entire piece will be sealed, sanded a ridiculous amount, and finished with several steps of finish.

The Updated Website - Jason Michael Kotarski

I have finally updated my website and will be fine tuning sections as the Autumn progresses into Winter and the rains begin to fall. I also hope to add more to this blog as the weather changes.

Without further ado Jason Michael Kotarski !!!  Not much different than before but the portfolio section is about to be reshaped to better display the variety of past projects as well as some "in progress" projects since my projects tend to take years.

Since creating the Nautalis coffee table top, the inlay has worked into my business card, my website, and has slowly become my defacto "logo". Although my logo is actually my signature and I intend to order a brass wood burning stamp with it in the future.

Jason Kotarski, Jason Michael Kotarski 

Woodworking- Inlaying an Isometric Infinity Loop in Big Leaf Maple

I am about to make a shift in the direction of this blog. Most likely to the people who have read this far along, it's for the better. Two marathon training blogs is enough. So I want to change the topic! I have found a very new and interesting species of wood that was previously unavailable to me; Acer Macrophyllum, Big Leaf Maple.

I have worked Maple before, it is hard and it is beautiful. However, Eastern Maple is typically easily identifiable and consistent. Big Leaf Maple on the other hand is wildly variable and takes on multi-dimensions in regards to figure. In the upcoming articles I am going to chart the construction of the Gate Leg Table. Since, I typically name each piece of furniture, this one is going by the working title of The Mrs.

The Mrs. is going to have an Oak frame constructed from a salvaged pallet. No, it is not going to look like a pallet, it is going to look like a piece of furniture. You can follow my youtube channel JKOTAR20  if you want to see how I went about it. The drawer faces are going to be flame figured Big Leaf Maple, just one of the many figures this wood presents. The top of the table is going to be primarily Big Leaf Maple with some inlay decorations. The centre is going to be from the centre of the tree, or the heart. This figure has beautiful grain patterns with streaks of color throughout and amazing quilting. The surround is going to come from the outside of the tree and will display some very interesting flame patterns. These will be shown in later posts, so for now, lets get on with it, shall we?

The centre of the The Mrs. is the main focal point of the table and when the sides are down, the only part that stands out. So to make this even more appealing than the grain already provides, we are going to inlay two things, one is a small, ever so slightly noticeable piece of copper. When all is said and done there will be a very delicate copper line between the three band inlay and the surrounding pieces. On both ends of the table are going to be inlaid infinity loops. And that is what I am about to show!

Jason Michael Kotarski

So this is actually pretty easy once it's all laid out. Let's start with the degrees, 30 and 60. By setting up the table saw with the push block set to 60 degrees, we create the two points of the loop.

Jason Michael Kotarski

Now that the two points are set we can go to the sliding compound mitre saw for the next cuts, at 30 degrees. With the saw set at 0 (90 Degrees), the line should be be right through the centre. 

Jason Michael Kotarski

So, we need to shift this to the 30 degree mark to get the angle we need. 

Jason Michael Kotarski

This is one of those times where the laser is very helpful with double checking the correct angle! This cut will also give us the angle for the next cut which will in effect be like a return. 

Jason Michael Kotarski

  Now all we need is our parallelogram to give us the distance.

Jason Michael Kotarski

Et, voila! Now, time for some good ol' fashion chisel work!

Jason Michael Kotarski