Hard or soft maple?

[brett gallmeyer]

I'm building a large office desk and bookcase for a client. Both units will be maple with cherry accents. I'm going to make my own laminate top out of quilted maple. what I'm wondering, is if I should use hard maple for the outer edge of the table top and base molding or if i could use soft maple. I was planning on using soft maple because we use it at my work alot for big kitchen and bath projects. Face frames, molding, drawers, panels, exc. I've never seen hard maple come through our yard.

I've included a picture of the sketchup drawing.

[Jason Beam]

Soft maple is still harder than cherry, so it should be fine.

I can't see any reason not to if you do your stock selection well - soft maple can sometimes have gray streaks in it - it is sometimes called silver maple for that reason. That may not look so good with your cherry :)

[Ben Davis]

Agreed. "Soft" Maple is still fairly stout stuff.