I am planning a woodworking project and intend to build this project
(work table) with maple. I understand that there are both hard and
soft maples. How would you know hard maple from soft maple? My options
for purchasing lumber include purchasing rough-sawn from a hardwood
dealer or buying S4S from a lumber yard or my local big-box building
supply company which recently began carrying maple 1X stock.

While I am sure that the maple at the hardwood deal is in fact hard -
how might I tell if the maple at the lumber yard (S4S) is hard rather
than soft?

Thanks in advance,

remsendh

Press your finger nail in to the wood... If you "easily" leave a dent, it's
probably soft maple..

"harrisrd" wrote in message
om...
I am planning a woodworking project and intend to build this project
(work table) with maple. I understand that there are both hard and
soft maples. How would you know hard maple from soft maple? My options
for purchasing lumber include purchasing rough-sawn from a hardwood
dealer or buying S4S from a lumber yard or my local big-box building
supply company which recently began carrying maple 1X stock.

While I am sure that the maple at the hardwood deal is in fact hard -
how might I tell if the maple at the lumber yard (S4S) is hard rather
than soft?

Thanks in advance,

remsendh

On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 16:30:36 -0400, "Mike G"
wrote:

I don't know where you do your shopping but when I go to my suppliers I can
tell the difference by the little tag they put over the stacks.

At my supplier I have to pick my way past the cowpats and I'm expected
to help swing the engine on the tractor-powered sawbench if I want any
big ripping done. They're not big on barcodes or shelf labels.

One says hard maple and the other says soft maple.

The density is probably the best guide. Hard maples have a specific
gravity over 0.55, soft maples below this (total range is about 0.45 -
0.65). Although there's a correlation with species, there are no
single "hard maple" or "soft maple" species. Sugar maples are hard,
red maples soft. The rest are variable.

You must have some pretty strong fingernails. IME, even "soft" maple
is pretty hard. There's no way that I can dig a fingernail into it.

I don't know is this is universal, but the soft maple I've seen has a
bit more color and a more pronounced grain, while hard maple is very
light and has almost no noticeable grain. (But when you're looking at
them rough, it's pretty hard to judge the color and grain.)


On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 18:25:48 GMT, "Leon"
wrote:

Press your finger nail in to the wood... If you "easily" leave a dent, it's
probably soft maple..


-- jc
Published e-mail address is strictly for spam collection.
If e-mailing me, please use jc631 at optonline dot net

In article , Andy Dingley wrote:
On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 16:30:36 -0400, "Mike G"
wrote:

I don't know where you do your shopping but when I go to my suppliers I can
tell the difference by the little tag they put over the stacks.

No tags at the Borg, but it's all soft maple.


At my supplier I have to pick my way past the cowpats and I'm expected
to help swing the engine on the tractor-powered sawbench if I want any
big ripping done. They're not big on barcodes or shelf labels.

One says hard maple and the other says soft maple.

The density is probably the best guide. Hard maples have a specific
gravity over 0.55, soft maples below this (total range is about 0.45 -
0.65). Although there's a correlation with species, there are no
single "hard maple" or "soft maple" species. Sugar maples are hard,
red maples soft. The rest are variable.

Silver maples are soft. Black maples are hard.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

You must have some pretty strong fingernails. IME, even "soft" maple
is pretty hard. There's no way that I can dig a fingernail into it.


I find it's not to hard to slightly dent a soft maple board with a fingernail.
Hard maple is not so easy to dent. That's how I tell.

Rich S.

"john carlson" wrote in message
...
You must have some pretty strong fingernails. IME, even "soft" maple
is pretty hard. There's no way that I can dig a fingernail into it.

Welll... ;~) I keep my nails pretty short and the don't bend easily... and
you may have a "harder" soft maple in your neck of the woods that what I
see. My supplier keeps them both next to each other.....I don't know why,
and they get mixed..

Andy Dingley wrote:
0.65). Although there's a correlation with species, there are no
single "hard maple" or "soft maple" species. Sugar maples are hard,
red maples soft. The rest are variable.

Variable?...never heard that one before. It's one or the other...

Hard maple: black, sugar
Soft maple: red, silver

(from the "Wood Handbook...Wood as an Engineering Material", US Dept
of Agriculture, Forestry Products Laboratory)
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_bas..._Handbook.html

--
************************************
Chris Merrill

(remove the ZZZ to contact me)
************************************

On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 00:41:20 GMT, john carlson wrote:

You must have some pretty strong fingernails. IME, even "soft" maple
is pretty hard. There's no way that I can dig a fingernail into it.

after working with tropicals hard maple seems soft to me. soft maple seems like
fake wood.

--
Knight-Toolworks & Custom Planes
Custom made wooden planes at reasonable prices
See http://www.knight-toolworks.com For prices and ordering instructions.

Oregon big leaf maple is pretty soft, its got great figure, but marks real
easy.
Rock or birdseye maple show little or no marking with the finger nail.

Bob P
making sawdust in Salem Or

Andy Dingley schreef
The density is probably the best guide. Hard maples have a specific
gravity over 0.55, soft maples below this (total range is about 0.45 -
0.65).

+ + +
And this should be valuable in practice because ...?
Also you forgot to specify OD or green.
+ + +

Although there's a correlation with species, there are no
single "hard maple" or "soft maple" species. Sugar maples are hard,
red maples soft. The rest are variable.

+ + +
Actually it is simpler:
Acer saccharum yields hard maple (also Acer nigrum if this is acknowledged
as separate from Acer saccharum)
Acer rubrum and Acer saccharinum yield soft maple
All other maples yield maple (with or without a specifier)
PvR