In article .com, "Charlie Self" wrote:
PVR notes:

For the record, and belatedly: yes.
Yes, density, strength and hardness are different things
Yes, hard maple (there is only one species) is appr. 50% harder than
soft
maple (at least two species).

I have long understood that there are two species of hard maple, A.
saccharum and A. nigrum (black maple).

Yes, there are. Sort of. A. nigrum is often sold as "hard maple" and it is in
fact a whole lot harder than silver maple (A. saccharinum), sold as "soft
maple", but it's nowhere near as hard as A. saccharum, and isn't all that much
harder than red maple (A. rubrum) which is also sold as "soft maple".

Specifics: (side hardness in lf-ft)
saccharum 1450
nigrum 1180
rubrum 950
saccharinum 700

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

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?