sencon

Curly maple. It started years ago when I saw a small table in a store window in NYC. This was before I was "in the business", but I was amazed by the highly-figured wood. Over the years I've culled through Home Depot's maple boards & occasionally find an errant piece of figured maple (birdseye is pretty cool too). Feels a bit like Christmas when I find a few.

Cmiller: I walked into my local lumberyard (last one standing) a couple of years ago & a pile of boards caught my eye. They were planks from a high school's bleachers: 6/4 old-growth, vertical grain fir. Two bolt holes every 52" & wads of gum everywhere!! A lot of scraping, but beautiful after planing. Used it for all kinds of stuff including a ladder & table for my kid's playhouse. Never get tired of looking at the 15-20 rings per inch.