Birdseye Maple

Birdseye Maple is a type of very hard wood from Sugar Maple trees with a distinctive grain structure caused by the presence of the ‘Birdseyes’.

During the eras of handmade furniture, Birdseye Maple was only used by the most skilled craftsmen as it required specialist skills and tools to work successfully. The divergent grains made it exceptionally difficult to work, particularly with the early woodworking machines that would often produce Birdseye surfaced that were torn and chipped, requiring many hours of hand planing to get a high gloss finish. This limited the use of the wood to projects that could afford the additional cost of labour needed.

As a result antique furniture made out of the wood is rare and beautiful.