Pros + Cons: Hard Maple v. Soft Maple for furniture

[Kent A Bathurst]

No real experience in using maple for furniture - HM used for bench tops & cutting boards, soft used for interior drawer parts.

Type of pieces in the plans include coffee tables, end tables, hall benches, sofa table, maybe even dining table & chairs, other odds and ends, so forth.

The friend/potential client has this to say:
1) No curly - doesn't like the grain [go figger :confused:].
2) Consistent, light color - no characteristics like spalting, etc.
3) I'd be using 4/4, 5/4, 8/4 - not sure how that matters, but thought I'd toss it in.
4) Initial thinking is a golden or honey-brown final hue, but this is not a final deal until samples presented and approved. May be accomplished with dye [not stain] or with just varnish.
5) Something on the order of satin-finish Behlen's/W'lox - or maybe P&L 38 - as the varnish. Something that can fight back against grandkids currently aged negative 5 months to positive 4 years.

This stuff will be the "last ever" for them.

Pros & cons of hard v. soft maple for the primary wood? Looking for some insight, please.

Thanks

Kent

[Prashun Patel]

Soft maple can have grey streaks and can be more difficult to get in consistent coloring. If this is a client project, IMHO the price dif between the two won't be worth the savings. Use the hard. Poplar might be a cheaper substitute for the invisible parts.

Maple with just a topcoat may appear too 'yellow' for some tastes. Beware that. P&L will be the lightest. Waterlox will be pretty dark, and Behlens will be the most dark.

If you wish to skip the coloring, then birch machines and finishes similarly to maple. It is slightly darker, so with an amber topcoat, you might get closer to 'honey' without a dye.

Last, consider the use of garnet shellac as a 'dye' instead of penetrating dye. In untrained hands (read, mine) even dye can blotch maple if not meticulously prepped. Garnet shellac will give some color with none of the blotch.

[Cary Falk]

My $.02. I hate soft maple. If it is not figured why bother. It is too soft for my taste. The last couple time I got some(from 2 different places, both were stringy/fuzzy and not very stable. I could partially mill it let it sit and when I would come back it would be warped and twisted even more. I have never had that problem with any other wood. Maybe I got a bad batch. It is also not very uniform in color and it has these tiny pits/knots everywhere. Hard maple is a pleasure to work with.

[Paul Symchych]

For longevity I think it is a tossup unless they are REALLY beating on their furniture. Hard has a higher janka score of course. Soft is more apt to have figure and streaks or sheets of color that can be attractive in their own right. But if you need pale and basically featureless wood hard would be the choice.
Unlike Cary I've used soft more often than hard maple with no troubles at all. Pacific coast maple [A. macrophyllem] is much softer, figured, more porous and more difficult to work so his maple in Wa. could be Pacific and thus the difference. Around here the Pacific sells at a significant premium to hard or soft.

[Lee Schierer]

Soft maple should be fine for furniture. It holds up just as well. If you are staining then either HM or Soft will tend to be blotchy, a pre-stain conditioner will help. Hard maple is so dense that it will hardly take any stain. For the whitest finish use a water based finish. It will darken the wood the least a really tough finish is Varathane water based diamond floor finish. It adds hardly any color to the wood and does not yellow with age. It is pricey and only available in gallons.

Remember the client is always right and it is their furniture not yours. If it bothers yours sense of what you want to make then decline the offer to build it.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Soft is more apt to have figure and streaks or sheets of color that can be attractive in their own right. But if you need pale and basically featureless wood hard would be the choice.


You've hit the ten-ring. My yield with respect to color and color matching would be better with the hard. "Basically featureless"......I'm going to use that line with her - perfect. :D

[Kent A Bathurst]

Maple with just a topcoat may appear too 'yellow' for some tastes.

Last, consider the use of garnet shellac as a 'dye' instead of penetrating dye. In untrained hands (read, mine) even dye can blotch maple if not meticulously prepped. Garnet shellac will give some color with none of the blotch.

Some hours spent cruising photos and examples for color, design cues, etc. Her initial description of what she had in mind might as well have been spoken in sanskrit. She liked the golden coloring of SYP, but did not like the pronounced grain. Turns out that what she wants is A&C style [right in my wheelhouse] with spindles, wide stretcher between the side rails, exposed joinery [through tenons, and even keyed through-tenons]. Maybe even corbels on the legs. Spindles and corbels out of cherry to offset the maple. They have hardwood floors throughout - not sure the precise species used, but it appears to be maple....certainly light maple-colored ....but in some places there are wide [~8"] stripes of "cherry" colored, as in "they said it was cherry" - but the wood ain't cherry. After I finally dialed in her "look" I said - "You mean like the floor?" "Ohhh - yeah - -that's what I was thinking!!" :D :D

Light colored is definitely the thing - I will show her samples with various finishes. I like the idea of shellac seal coat as a "dye" substitute. I would have been using ultra blonde as a seal coat regardless....the garnet might be cool - I will try that out - had not considered it - thanks for the idea, Prashun.

I've never used the P&L.......read about it here often. Wear characteristics comparable to Behlen's & Wlox? Application comparable? I typically brush on coats... brush two, wait a couple days, scuff sand, brush two, wait a couple days, scuff sand, 50/50 reduction for wipe-on final coat or two. OK with P&L?

[Prashun Patel]

I've not used Behlens or P&L, but they're as well respected among the pros here as Waterlox (i'm no pro). I know Behlen's has a special reducer that they is better than just using MS. Waterlox can be thinned with MS. But keep in mind that the full strength Waterlox products are lighter in color than the sealer/finish - which is prethinned. It costs marginally more to use the pre-thinned, but I just find it easier and I like the dark color.

Also, if using Waterlox, keep in mind that both Original Sealer Finish and Satin full strength are available in VOC compliant formula and the original formula. The VOC costs more but I have not used it.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I'm all over the Behlen's & Wlox - sorry....didn't make that very clear. Behlen's by the gallon, with cans of their reducer. The Wlox came into play when the client decided the glossy finish was not what she wanted after all, so.....Wlox satin as one final wipe on coat, and she's delighted. No payoff from rubbing out the Behlen's.......

Just was wondering if the P&L applies in a similar fashion.

[John Baranowski]

"Basically featureless"......I'm going to use that line with her - perfect.

If that is what she is looking for, why buy wood furniture? Or just use poplar and paint the thing. (not a critique of you, just people who want wood that doesn't look like wood)

[Kent A Bathurst]

Oh no - she definitely wants wood, and wood grain - she simply doesn't want pronounced or "dramatic" grain that you get with curly maple, QSWO, etc. The SYP has bold spring/summerwood contrast. She has a number of older pieces from her late parents that are fairly nice QWSO. They could stand to have the finish refreshed, but she isn't interested - the grain simply is not to her liking. Their house is on the lower Potomac, with the river-facing walls all glass. She likes the "light and airy" feel.

The "basically featureless" is tongue-in-cheek.

[Dave Lehnert]

My last few projects I have used soft maple. It has worked out GREAT. My hardwood dealer said when he worked for a large lumber company he use to sell soft maple like crazy to furniture and RV manufactures.