I always use dead wood. It looks so white, just because it is maple. There are better woods to use. Maple is a bit hard, but I have two monster maple's in my yard, and plenty of dead sticks from them laying around.

I just start by taking a few good sized strips out of the stick to get a nice flat surface to work with. Once I have that, I just think THIN and the knife does the rest. You can tell they are all done in the same area. Do one, then do the next one, but just stop a little short of the first so that you don't cut it off, and just keep going...