Is this the Place?

[numbskull]

Trouble with maple and darters, Larry, is that the wood from each plank can be quite a bit different. Unfinished bodies vary as much as 1/2 an oz, even with wood that is dried to the same degree. They tend to approach each other when left in sealer a long time, but I don't feel I have any great grasp of how to time how long I should seal them.

Thinking I might go back to hard maple (or beech) instead. Though repeatedly sharpening tools becomes a pain when making quantities.

[BigFish]

I was curious about the consistency of the density of the wood one from the other before sealer? I have not used maple much less try building a darter.....never really fished them much? I know they rock but just have not been on my favorites list? Thanks for the info George......you have great insight!

[numbskull]

Time for you to make some Gibbs darters, Eddy. That black one you showed me swam better than anything I've built.

[Tagger]

Originally Posted by numbskull

Time for you to make some Gibbs darters, Eddy. That black one you showed me swam better than anything I've built.

I've made some Gibbs .. The 3 hook one .. I made one of those single belly I like (have fished enough to get fish approval).. reading your other post about going back to hard maple .. I'm done there .. Why not consider birch darters (gibbs).. Hard maple is to damm hard .. I swear some plugs split on impact of the water.. Weight is all over the place.. sux to work with,, thru drilling sux ,, tools hate it ... Only thing it has going for it ,, it swims well /no weight.. Birch dowel darter size are expensive $$ .. thinking about buying a board and ripping it up .. I bet you've done this ..

[numbskull]

Yeah, I ripped a lot of birch for the Hab needle copies I did a couple of years ago. If you want to get a 6/4 plank and bring it down here I'll slice it up for you......might cost you a darter though .

[Diggin Jiggin]

Originally Posted by numbskull

Trouble with maple and darters, Larry, is that the wood from each plank can be quite a bit different. Unfinished bodies vary as much as 1/2 an oz, even with wood that is dried to the same degree. They tend to approach each other when left in sealer a long time, but I don't feel I have any great grasp of how to time how long I should seal them.

Thinking I might go back to hard maple (or beech) instead. Though repeatedly sharpening tools becomes a pain when making quantities.

After my oversealing incident last year I cut the soak time on the soft maple to 1-2 hours.. I was using slightly thinned spar urethane and I did not have any splits.