Roasted Maple, I am not familar with is description, help please

[Gearoil]

Never heard this description of roasted maple. Now I have some birds eye maple and somew of it is white and some a beautiful light brown with all the circles where the birds have pecked it. is this light brown area the "Roasted Maple"?  And is the light brown Birds eye maple more desirable. The amount of eyes in the wood is unbelievable? So just wondering if the white or brown is more desirable,

Gary

 

[stratamania]

Hi Gary,

Roasted Maple, is not a different species. It's simply a maple of whatever variety that has undergone a process of being roasted, sometimes called caramelized. But in any event is better known as Torrefication which is heat treating wood to remove moisture from the cell structures of the wood as well as moisture from outside. This alters the woods inherent structure. It is also known as thermo (thermal) treatment.

It is done in kilns with little oxygen to prevent combustion. The result is a more stable wood if done correctly and some say has properties similar to much older wood.

Anyway, it also results in a darker color.  So something like curly (flame) or birdseye are likely to stand out more than prior to the process. Putting a finish on normal maple also makes the grain patterns stand out.

What is more desirable is down to individual taste.

 

[Cagey]

Incidentally, birdseye figuring is not caused by birds pecking at the tree. As with curly or quilted figuring, so far research has only determined what does not cause it. To date, nobody knows what does (or they're not saying). Also, there doesn't appear to be any way to determine which trees will yield wood with that figuring, which is probably a good thing or it would all have been gone long ago. They also can't be bred to produce it. As close as anyone's been able to tell, figuring is just a freak of nature. I think they're just not working hard enough at it.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

From what I've been able to find about it, birdseye is a kind of 'micro knots' which form when a trunk sprouts a heap of little twigs, none of which actually become branches. No idea as to the circumstances which would make this happen but I think it's not all that uncommon. It's just the volume of it which can differ dramatically between a piece of plain maple with a few sporadic birdseyes sprinkled in and a piece of astonishing birdseye goodness.

 

[musicispeace]

I've seen some stunning examples of roasted flame maple but maybe just one picture of a roasted birdseye maple neck and it was nicely dramatic. I have one roasted maple neck and like it. It can be played without a finish, which I really like. Most of Warmoth's roasted maple necks seem to be a nice medium color, Musikraft ranges from lighter to darker at your request. USACG's seem to be a bit lighter in color than Warmoth's.

 

[Re-Pete]

It can be played without a finish, which I really like.

I can appreciate the allure of no finish. However, if you are spending $$ on a neck you want to make sure it doesn't feel odd in your hands and I'm used to finished necks. Only recently I had an opportunity to play a neck with a satin finish on it and I quite liked that, but my general preference is good old poly gloss finish.

Was wondering if Warmoth would put a poly gloss finish on a roasted maple neck? I have seen the roasted body video & how the swamp ash body takes an almost walnut look in colour change when it is roasted and then clear coated. 

 

[stratamania]

@Re-Pete, the option for a gloss finish is in the list for roasted maple necks.

What happened to the original poster?