# giant sugar maple slabs, gem or major waste of time?



## bond3737 (Nov 13, 2009)

hey all, slabbed a sugar maple the other day that had been laying round for a while and think I might have blown an entire days work inching that freaking giant back to my car, or found something truly amazing... Sadly my phone is broken (fell off river bank into river) so no pictures until I get a new one. But, to the point, the middle section near the pith of the slab and some other sections are far darker than the outer sections. for a good three inches on each side of the pith the material is gummy and scratches out with a finger nail. I know that stuff is worthless rot- cant plane it sculpt it or anything. A friend mentioned some wood hardener or something like that but I dont know anything about it and dont really know if it would work. Then there are some areas that are much darker than others which appear sporadically throughout the slab which are much harder than the gummyness, cant be scratched out by a fingernail but are noticeably wetter than the super hard lighter parts. The spalting on this thing is BONKERS I literally just stood there and laughed for five minutes when it came open but I fear it may be too late. Any advice you all can give, thoughts ideas and the like would be greatly appreciated. I dont want to see this thing go to waste but dont want to waste time on it either, 
Bond


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## Allen Tomaszek (Dec 11, 2010)

Sounds like you've done the really hard work. At the stage you've described I'd probably just trim out the soft parts and get the best boards out of it you can. Post pics when you get a chance. We'd love to see it. Good luck.


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## MidGAOutdoor (Apr 7, 2011)

would love to see pics


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## bond3737 (Nov 13, 2009)

this is the only picture I have at the moment but I love it... If you look at it the spalting kind of looks like an angry bird super villain or something hahaha its the only one worth posting really because those pieces still have a ton of chain marks. Ive gone through THREE electric planers so far. they keep blowing up for some reason. Thank my lucky stars for home depots 30 day return policy... Im gonna put that place out of business:yes: will post more soon, 
Bond


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## Brink (Nov 22, 2010)

Blowing up planers? Is that slab hard? Lol 

I hand planed all the rough cut maple for my bench. Learned real quick how to sharpen, as I had to do it every hour or so.

Looks like some beautiful wood there. What size is it?


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