# Curly vs. tiger maple



## yellowtruck75 (Jan 1, 2010)

I have been told that the difference between curly and tiger maple is that one is hard maple and one is soft maple, is this true? I have also been told that soft maple is really only by name being that it is still harder than most hard woods. I am looking to use curly maple for a rocking chair but want to make sure it is hard enough for the curves and angles that I need. What is the closest hard wood to soft maple?

Thanks
YT75


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## McKinneyMike (Feb 11, 2011)

Curly is tiger maple, they are one in the same. You can break down curly figure into a few distinct types:

These types of curly figure can happen in all species of Maples including Red Maple, Silver Maple, Western Big Leaf Maple or Hard Maple
1) Tiger or flame Maple is a type of curl where the figure undulates from side to side like the dance of a flame or the stripes of a tiger.

2) Fiddleback figure is extremely tightly spaced and very uniform in its look. This was the preferred figure type of the violin makers, hence its name "fiddleback". It makes its impact on smaller items like the back of a violin. It losses some of its impact on larger areas where flame or regular culry figure is larger in size and fits the larger scales projects better. Fiddleback is the rarest of the curly figures too. I have seen a limited amount of it in my lifetime, vs tiger or the more common curly figured Maples.

3) Simple "curly figure" will be uniform in its look, without the undulating appearance of tiger or flame Maple. More widely spaced than the fiddleback and larger in size.

Hope that helps


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## yellowtruck75 (Jan 1, 2010)

Mike thanks for the help


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## McKinneyMike (Feb 11, 2011)

As far as the hardness of soft Maple it is close to the same hardness of Cherry, but not quite that hard. I have never built a rocking chair, so I have no real input as to whether it would be hard enough for the rockers. I think that it would be fine as I have seen lesser woods and they have held up well over the years on rocking chairs.


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## oblowme (May 20, 2011)

SM is in the 'Gum' (Sweet Gum, Black Gum, Tupelo etc) as to it's hardness. For rockers I'd not hesitate to use it, there are alot of them made of White Pine sooo….
The biggest concern for rockers is the grain pattern; if striaght grained the piece will cross the vertical grain at least once and will probable fail. Look for wood with grain that sweeps approximately the same radius as your rocker.


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## dbray45 (Oct 19, 2010)

For the rocker rails, if you have a grain that interlocks like elm, this will give extra strength. Making the bottom of the rails a laminated piece that wraps the length will give you seriously better strength as well.


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