"Great firewood" compared to what? Poplar? IME, silver maple burns rapidly to
ashes, whereas sugar maple burns slowly to coals as oak, ash, and hickory do.


Great firewood meaning it burns well. No, not as long as harder woods
like osage and locust, but thick cuts last a good while and produce a
nice clean bed of coals to cook the black locust.

Excellent wood for a
cutting board center, and easy on knives. Worked well, and is a nice
tight grained wood. It is called soft maple, but it's up there with
cherry, mahogany, and walnut in it's hardness.

Cherry and mahogany, yes. Walnut, no. Silver maple is only about 2/3 as hard
as walnut.


Here are the (dry) hardness numbers for each of the above. When I say
'up there', I guess it's implied that it is 'close' to the others. In
2 cases its actually HARDER. In the case of walnut, you are
incorrect. It is only lower by 60 lbs of force or approx 5%.

Soft maple
Specific Gravity 0.54
Hardness 950 lbs

Black walnut
Specific Gravity 0.59
Hardness 1010 lbs

Cherry
Specific Gravity 0.54
Hardness 660 lbs

Genuine Mahogany
Specific Gravity 0.59
Hardness 801 lbs