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