Hard vs. Soft Maple

[Alan Mikkelsen]

How much harder is hard maple vs. soft maple? I've got a bunch of soft maple, but was wondering what the difference is? Thanks.

[Jim Becker]

IMHO, they are both "hard"!! But the sugar maples, etc., apparently have a higher density and "hardness" and are even more tough. The softness of "soft" maple also varries depending upon species...remember, these designations are groupings, not references to just one kind of Maple tree.

[Larry Crim]

I just bought some soft and mixed in was one board of hard maple it is quite a bit heavier and is considerably harder.IMHO

[Tom Conger]

Fingernail test!

[Rob Bourgeois]

Fingernail test!
Does not work in my experince. Hardwoods wont dent under finger nail pressure but soft woods( conifers) will. People seem to think soft maple is a soft wood. Its harder than alot of hard woods and supposedly almost as hard as cherry.

[Bill Roland]

Read the last line on this page.
http://www.hardwood.org/species_guide/display_species.asp?species=softmaple

[Jim DeMarco]

Specific gravity, multiply by 32.2 to get density in lb/ft^3

Hard Maples:
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
Sugar 0.56
Black 0.52

Soft Maples: <o:p></o:p>
Red 0.49
Silver 0.44
Bigleaf 0.44

So for eaxample Sugar Maple is ~18 lb/ft^3 (or about 12 per board foot)
<o:p></o:p>

[Christopher Pine]

This discussion comes from me looking at prices for hardmaple and after I woke up from fainting.. :) One place here locally had it at $7 plus a bd ft...
I did find a considereable better prices at around $5 , however "soft maple" is about $4 bd ft depending on grade... I am looking to build an entertainment center and wanted a light colored wood as the otehr things in my basement are maple .. cabinets shelves etc... WOuld soft maple match the other stuff made form hard maple fairly close?

Chris

[Andy London]

Generally speaking and I live in the heart of most north american maples, there is very, very little difference. Some of the soft maples work a little harder than others, I find quilted for example which is a soft maple a pain at times. Personally I find hard maple a little easier to work with.....too used to exotics I guess:rolleyes:

[Lars Thomas]

It would certainly depend on the tree, but in my experience, soft maple has a slightly browner color than hard maple. Will they match? Well, I’ll just say that I have mixed them before on projects and now wish I didn’t.

This bed has soft maple posts and the balance is hard maple (just to offer an example) http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=17446

Lars

[Steve Cox]

It really depends on what you mean by "soft" maple. Out here our local (bigleaf) maple is about the same as cherry. It is softer than sugar maple but that doesn't make it soft like red cedar.:p

[Jim Becker]

Hardwoods wont dent under finger nail pressure but soft woods( conifers) will.
What about hardwoods like...tulip poplar, aspen, basswood...umm... balsa!!?? :p:D:cool:

[Burt Waddell]

We use a lot of soft maple for kitchens and as for as I am concerned it is "Soft" in name only. We did several kitchen in a row of soft maple and then did one in red oakl. I could hardly believe that red oak cut that easier.

[Rob Bourgeois]

What about hardwoods like...tulip poplar, aspen, basswood...umm... balsa!!?? :p:D:cool:


forgot the "most" in front of that..:p :cool:

[Chris Mann]

my experience with what i find as soft maple is not so much that it's soft, just that the color varies more and leans more tan than what is labeled hard maple. oh, and it's significantly cheaper.

[Alan Mikkelsen]

Thanks for all the replies, now next question: I would like to build a new top for my workbench. Would I be sorry if I went with soft maple, vs. hard maple? I already have a fairly large stock of soft maple, and would have to buy a half dozen or so boards of hard maple.

[lou sansone]

I prefer to use that Janka hardness scale to try to quantify this question

soft maple is ~ 950 on that scale and basically equal to cherry. hard maple is quite a bit harder.

Lou

[Jim O'Dell]

Lou, thanks for the chart...I've never seen that before. I was suprised to see pecan that far up the scale, knew hickory was, just thought pecan was a softer wood. Maybe all this deadfall I'm getting from the oak and pecan trees WILL work well in the fireplace! Jim.

[Jim DeLaney]

Specific gravity, multiply by 32.2 to get density in lb/ft^3

Hard Maples:
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
Sugar 0.56
Black 0.52

Soft Maples: <o:p></o:p>
Red 0.49
Silver 0.44
Bigleaf 0.44

So for eaxample Sugar Maple is ~18 lb/ft^3 (or about 12 per board foot)
<o:p></o:p>

Don't you mean about 1.5 pounds per board foot? There are 12 board feet in a cubic foot. Also, are you sure your formula is correct? Water has a specific gravity of 1.0, and it weighs 62.4 pounds per cubic foot. At .56, that would make a cubic foot of sugar maple weigh about 34.9 pounds, or 2.9 pounds per board foot. Somehow (without actually weighing a piece of hard maple) that seems to be a closer estimate. BTW, what would the moisture content of the wood be in your reference? That will make a big difference, too.

[lou sansone]

Lou, thanks for the chart...I've never seen that before. I was surprised to see pecan that far up the scale, knew hickory was, just thought pecan was a softer wood. Maybe all this dead fall I'm getting from the oak and pecan trees WILL work well in the fireplace! Jim.

many folks have not see this chart or the method by which wood hardness is measured and that is why I wanted to post it. Your exactly right about hickory and it is one of the reasons that I always suggest folks use it for flooring. Hickory is hard, light colored, and reasonably priced

[Alan Mikkelsen]

Great chart! It answers a lot of questions. I've printed off the chart and am posting on my shop bulletin board.

[Christopher Pine]

Any idea where IPE would fall on this chart?



Chris

[lou sansone]

ipe is basically off the chart at about 3600

lou

[Paul Downes]

Maple(s) are "Acer-*" this or that by scientific nameing convention. Acer negundo, (I may have spelled that right), is commonly known as box elder. It's real soft. Acer saccarine, or something like that, is sugar maple, or rock maple. Pretty hard stuff. I would 'thumb nail' test your wood and make up your mind from that. It only has to please you, right? It may aquire an antiqued look sooner, and you may look like a seasoned wood worker with a bench with all sorts of dents and such.:D
On the other hand there is a 'defect' hard maple commonly known as 'thumb nail' maple. This is a defect that occurs like birdseye and curl. The wood looks like some lunatic pushed his or her thumb nail into the wood all over the place. It finishes out with a bunch of brown squiggles about 1/2" long throughout the wood. Then there is longeye, (hard) & Quilted, (quite soft)..........Good luck with the bench, I'm going to make one myself soon and have been pineing away for some 'defect' maple for the top.