Hard Maple Vs Soft Maple

Soft maple should be priced lower than hard maple.

Hard maple vs soft maple. Soft maple on the other hand is derived from several different variations of the maple species and go by names such as red maple acer rebrum and bigleaf maple acer macrophyllum. Hard maple is commonly referred to as sugar maple. Within all the different variations of the maple species they are primarily separated into one of two types of lumber hard maple and soft maple. Soft maple isnt a maple species.

Soft maple as a wood species. Soft maple can actually be one of several species of maple with big leaf the predominant species in the northwest and red or silver maple on the east coast. On the janka hardness scale a scale that ranks wood for hardness hickory is the hardest of all domestic hardwoods ranking at 1820. Butcher blocks flooring workbench tops etc.

The main instances where you would want to stick with hard maple would be in applications where hardness and strength are important such as. Soft maple hard maple is the common term for two species of maple trees. Soft maple dowels bow more almost 12 inch versus less than 14 inch on hard maple of the same 26 lengths and sometimes break. White oak which is more exclusive than red oak should be priced higher than red oak.

The term refers to the quality of a maple trees wood. Hard maple refers to just one species acer saccharum aka rock or sugar maple and it is the species from which we get maple syrup. Sugar maple acer saccharum and black maple acer nigrum. Hard maple 1450 lb f janka is roughly twice as hard as soft maple 700 950 lb f jankaprimarily because it tends to grow about half as fast as most other soft maple species.

Maples labeled soft are the fast growing species that seem to shoot up overnight including garden friendly landscape trees such as bigleaf acer macrophyllum in us. Traditionally hard maple and soft maple have both been commonly used in the manufacture of furniture cabinets instruments and various specialty items. Hard maple is more commonly found in flooring because it is more dense and it is a bit harder by nature about 25 harder that soft maple. Scroll down for more info links etc.

Hard maple is commonly used in the manufacture of flooring furniture cabinets billiard cues and other finished wood products. A few facts about hard maple acer saccharum always check provenance to ensure your supply is from a well managed source.