Roasted birdseye maple (Acer saccharum) comes from sugar maple trees growing in Canada and North America. This wood has been heat-treated by a complex torrefaction processing. Roasted maple is kiln heated to a very precisely maintained temperature of ca. 200 degrees under withdrawal of oxygen at the same time. This dries the wood, reduces free oxygen and releases tension in the wood structure.
The wood is thoroughly dried, it gets greater strength, durability and a very attractive cherry-like caramel colour during this process. Thermally treated wood is generally light weighted and sounds great as an aging process of the wood is imitated. It also has a significantly better dimensional stability, as possibly warping has already taken place during the treatment and the wood stands now much more relaxed and stable. The wood is very hard and dense, heavy and only ca. 10 % of the trees develop this beautifully figure, showing an attractive pattern of small eyes, that gave this very esteemed wood its name.
B graded means that the blanks are less figured, but they have absolutely no defects.
