Figured Maple Drop Top | Master Grade

I've ordered these tops a few times. There's pros and cons. They're a great value for the price if you're prepared for what you're getting. Great for a builder but they might be challenging for a DIY'er or shop with limited machinery. They've always arrived flat, dry, and stable. This by itself brings me back as a customer. I can't tell you how many times I got expensive figure wood cupped like a potato chip from other suppliers who then acted like what's the big deal. With that said, these do need some work before you can glue them up. The bookmatched faces have fine saw marks and the reverse has either saw or jointer marks. A thickness sander is a must to clean this up a planer will chew up flame. I saw one comment that the edges weren't ready to glue either. This is true, but I don't think it's fair. It could be jointed perfect before shipping and still need to be tweaked a few days later due to environment changes. Not being sanding also means the figure is hard to see at first. The figure always turns out very nice, but I think calling them Master is exaggerated because it varies. I take Master to mean the best of the best super tight flame. Most of what I've received is like the sample photo - very pretty, but not Master. I did get a few that were a little weaker and a few that were truly jaw dropping private stock. They're usually flatsawn where the grain isn't so symmetrical but sometimes they're quartersawn. It depends what you like. So if you can afford to, maybe buy a few to be sure you get one you like. Maybe I'm asking too much to think they could offer quartersawn vs flatsawn tops separately like they do for necks. It would be good if they posted a few high res photo examples too.

Is there nicer stuff out there? Sure. Is there cheaper stuff out there? Of course. Is there any other better intersection of quality to price? Absolutely not.

Very nice piece!

I received a bookmatched set with fairly tight flame figure. Pretty uniform in figure and shade with a little mineral streak in one area (lots on the other side so don't think I want to sand much!). The center seam does not meet my requirements for a decent glue joint so I will be losing a little width when I joint/sand as needed. I have been somewhat spoiled in the past with local suppliers here in the Pacific NW that have S4S (surfaced four sides) stock that needed no additional work to join, but completely expect to straighten and square all the wood I buy nowadays. However, I do feel the center seam of a bookmatched pair should be suitable for a perfect glue joint if you are going to specify a particular width. Just my opinion. Otherwise pleased with the product.

This is a great bargain for what I would call a very good drop top, but it's not master grade. For the money, you really can't complain - these are very well priced, and you probably get more than what you're paying for. Still, I would rather pay an extra $20-$40 and get deeper, tighter, more consistent figuring. I've bought a number of their master grade curly maple neck blanks and this isn't quite as well figured as those are, despite being graded the same. Quite good, but not "master grade" I would use in a $2000+ custom build. Likely if you were to order 10 of these you'd get some that were exceptional, and some that were more like this - good but not great.

Just got my first top from American Specialty Hardwoods and it's amazing. The figure is perfect. No runouts and the color is a perfect honey amber. Best wood deal out there. Thanks.