To All,

As a point of interest, in the 1970's I was able to buy all the
STRAIGHT-GRAINED maple I wanted at bargain prices because (here it
comes) the straight-grained varieties ( sometimes called 'sugar
maple' ) was LESS desirable for furniture than the 'curly' varieties.
The same was true for mahogany; with straight, hard-grained mahogany
did not have as much 'figure' and was therefore used only for the
hidden portions of the furniture. Which lead to.... Bob, the Garbage
Thief.

Back in the Day, whenever that was, people used to get rid of unwanted
furniture by simply sitting it out by the road-side on Garbage Day
(whenever THAT was). I found that couches and chairs USUALLY had
frames made of straight-grained maple or oak, often in pieces long
enough for making a prop-blank. After dismantling the piece I would
return the residue to the road-side (something we are not allowed to
do today). And WOOD residue went into the stove.

Unless you were seriously poor you would never consider such sources
for hardwood, partly because of the difficulty in removing the
zillions of pneumatically-installed staples and nails. But when you
can't allow your hobby to financially intrude on your family's
welfare, you treat your time as having zero-value when involved in the
recovery of wood from old furniture, tables and what-have-you.

-R.S.Hoover