Experiment Over - with some telling results!
I went to Bone Timber in Adelaide and they don't stock any maple. I got some meranti and they said it's a similar type of "hard wood".
My colleague on the other hand, actually had some maple offcuts so I used them instead!
The first picture is laser cutting on unfinished maple - one with tape, one without. It's clear to see that the one without got a bit of the ash smudge on it.
Putting on the oil - there is a bit more gloss but during the rubbing some further smudging happened - because I didn't sand before laser cutting, the smudge fills up the cracks very soon. Leaves a dirty look. The one with the tape looks alright
Next, pre-finished and pre-finished with tape
I've only done one layer of oil due to time constraints, but it appears that cutting on unfinished or pre-finished doesn't make a lot of difference (pre-finish at 12 hours to dry), but the key is TAPE. without tape the smudge makes it very dirty looking.
This is what it looks like after the 2nd coat
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