Cabinets, Furniture, Woodworks/Kitchen Cabinets

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Expert: - 10/2/2008


Question
Hi.  I am having a house built and I would like to know the difference between oak and maple.  I have been looking at many many pictures of a lighter color (irish creme glazeor vanilla bean glaze...made by Kraftsmaid) cabinets and I am just skeptical about using the oak because of the grains. What kind of price difference am I looking at as well? Thanks so much.

Answer
This is a difficult question to answer as there are many diffent types of both maple and oak.  Each has different characteristics as to hardness, color and price. Generally maple and oak are widely used in home cabinetry and furniture and it will depend on your taste.  Maple , again generally is a whiter blander wood with close pores, while oak tends to the more yellow side with marked grain and open pores.  They are roughly in the same price range and are available widely.

Cabinets, Furniture, Woodworks

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maura macaluso

Expertise

I can answer most questions, regarding, wood sculpture, wood carving, carving tools and accessories and different types of woods.I am not an appraiser of carvings nor an antique dealer.

Experience

I do full design work, custom carving, restoration, fabrication, repair and refinishing. I can take a piece of raw wood and turn it into a work of art and I can help you do the same. I am "the" carving instructor for the new york city parks dept. I am heavily involved in carving on the internet and belong to many, many mail lists which are quite active. I am also an international promoter of woodcarving and am affiliated with many master carvers, notably nora hall, originally from holland, now in the U.S. and kalina pavlova, a bulgarian master carver. I routinely communicate with the top names in professional woodcarving nationally and internationally.

Organizations
the national association of woodcarvers. the woodcarvers of queens NY, the staten island woodcarvers. the northeast woodcarving association. the world wide carving internet list

Publications
chip chats-the national magazine of woodcarving. also at www.carvinginnyc.com

Education/Credentials
Self taught artist and sculptor, 40 years of drawing and painting as a hobby, 5 years of serious woodsculpting. I have my own website and have written a 300 pg book on carving. I have published online tutorials and pictorial projects

Awards and Honors
many first place awards

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